NEW DELHI: Inordinate delay in getting infrastructure ready, rapid escalation of costs, lack of proper long-term planning, poor estimation of costs, and the recently-raised issue of security are just some of the issues that raise question marks against Delhi’s ability to host the Commonwealth
Games successfully next year. 
After all, it is the biggest sports gala in the country’s history. The 1951 and 1982 Asian Games were big, but not as huge as the Commonwealth Games in which over 8,000 athletes from 71 countries will compete in 18 sports over 12 days starting 3 October 2010.
India has more than the prestige at stake. The CWG – only the second edition to be held in Asia after Kuala Lumpur hosted them in 1998 – will also determine whether or not the country has the wherewithal, capability and the will power to host the Olympic Games in 2020 for which Pune is cited as host city. The Indian Olympic Association (IOA) will be keen to stage a blemishless CWG, lest its Olympic bid would go the way it lost a chance to host the 2014 Asian Games (South Korea’s Incheon city had beaten New Delhi in the crucial voting).
The CWG must be hosted smoothly and successfully, and they must leave a good impression on those who will decide the host for the 2020 Olympics. Sadly but not unexpectedly, however, the signs, are not favourable. All the CWG-related projects – be it the refurbishment/upgradation of stadia, construction of the Games Village, building new hotels, the crucial volunteer programme, flyovers, transport system or the international airport – are behind schedule. In many cases, deadlines have been unashamedly extended several times – and many doubt that the existing deadlines would be met in all cases.
Quite remarkably, the political will doesn’t seem as strong as it was seen while preparing for the 1982 Asian Games when Rajiv Gandhi took keen personal interest and ensured that the infrastructure was ready in record time. This time around, personal egos, haphazard and ambiguous planning, and red tapism have combined to seemingly derail the preparations to a large extent. The laxity can be gauged from the fact that Sheila Dikshit’s Delhi government had not submitted any proposal for development of infrastructure and capacity building to the national government until November 2008.
This was pointed out by the Department Related Parliamentary standing committee of Human Resource Development in its 195th report on demands for grants 2007-2008 of the Sports Ministry. It noted: “The committee finds ad-hocism in projections and formulation of estimates for hosting an international event like this. It seems that there exists no clear schematic guidelines in this regard.” The report was tabled in Parliament in May 2007.
The 2008 Delhi election – and now the national election – could have added some slackness in the government machinery and that contributed to the delay in the start of preparations. Some federation officials say that their heads – who are in almost all cases politicians – are not available to help finalise and approve plans for the CWG. “Since the ministers are busy in elections, we cannot formulate plans in such a short time,” National Rifle Association of India secretary-general Baljit Singh Sethi told SportzPower.com, referring to the handsome Rs 6.78 billion allocated by the government for preparations of teams and upgradation of infrastructure for the CWG.
Even the IOA president, Suresh Kalmadi, is a Congress politician and is busy campaigning in his home city Pune and therefore won’t be available for the CWG-related matters at least till 16 May, when the election results are announced. At this juncture, when the CWG preparations need his presence in Delhi, he is thousands of miles away trying to get re-elected to Parliament.
But the IOA as a body, the main CWG organisers, cannot hide behind the election excuse. It could have started the lengthy paperwork a few years ago, considering the Games were allotted to New Delhi in 2003. The delays percolated down to other agencies involved in preparations and the result is that all projects are now running against time. That has given birth to a grave danger of quality being compromised in all spheres. In the last one year, the only sign of relief for IOA was that the Congress party was again voted to power in Delhi, prompting continuity in planning, which hardly exists, anyway. Now, Kalmadi and company would be hoping that the Congress-led UPA government comes to power again to maintain continuity in CWG preparations.
The delay has resulted in the project costs exceeding the initially projected figures. So far, Rs 79.0723 billion – this includes Rs 3,514.8 milliom spent on the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune last year – have been sanctioned by the Central government on upgradation/development of venues, security arrangements, Games Village, preparation of teams, main press centre, sports injury centre at Safdarjung Hospital, and refurbishment of monuments.
“This figure will shoot considerably and a revised proposal is before the Union Cabinet for clearance. Considering the cost escalation, largely due to major delays and other factors, it’s roughly estimated that by the time the Games begin, the overall Games cost is expected to touch Rs 500 billion,” said a top official of the Sports Authority of India, which is involved in the projects. “This figure would include expansion of metro rail, which is not taken into account and a big chunk on security, which has become a big and important issue now.”
