New Delhi

Delhi Govt. gearing up to host Commonwealth Games 2010

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JAN. 27. The Delhi Government is finally gearing up to host the prestigious Commonwealth Games in 2010. The Chief Minister, Sheila Dikshit, today convened a high-level meeting of various departments and agencies to prepare a comprehensive budget for infrastructure development projects that would later be presented to the Centre for grant of funds.

Ironically, the departments and agencies proposed an "inflated" Rs.1,200-crore budget for the Games which included projects for which money have already been sanctioned from the Plan funds. This reportedly irked Ms. Dikshit and took senior officials of her Government to task and asked them to prepare another proposal sans any glitches and ensure that only new projects were mentioned in the list of proposals.

The meeting saw participation of various Government agencies including the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Delhi Jal Board, Public Works Department, Health Department and representatives from private power distribution companies.

The Chief Minister asked the Chief Secretary, S Regunathan, to bring all the proposed projects under one head and prepare a consolidated draft to be presented to the Union Government for grant of funds. Ms. Dikshit directed that utmost care should be taken while drafting the project proposals so that it may not face any glitches at the time of clearance and grant of funds.

Different departments presented their proposals in the meeting. The Public Works Department said that to ensure smooth movement of vehicles in the city it has planned to construct at least 13 flyovers of six or eight lanes for which extra fund was required while the Municipal Corporation of Delhi demanded more funds for extension and improvement of road network in the Capital besides constructing underpasses at crucial junctions and more overhead bridges and pedestrian subways for public.

The Health Department forwarded a proposal to constructing state-of-the-art sports speciality hospital near the games village near Akshardham Temple in East Delhi and also underlined the need for new hi-tech ambulances for placing near different venues of the Games for sportspersons as well as to strengthen disaster management efforts.

The Delhi Jal Board officials said at least one dozen big hotels were likely to come up near the games village and other parts of the Capital to meet the huge influx of foreign visitors to witness the sports extravaganza. Similarly, other facilities like restaurants and eating joints, shopping arenas, recreational centres and tourist spots were also being planned. Then there would be new games village and sports complexes while old ones would be upgraded.

In order to meet water demand of such a massive scale, new water pipelines would have to be laid besides constructing new water boosting stations.

Replacement of old pipelines and repair work of extensive nature would have to undertaken to ensure round-the-clock water supply to sporting facilities. So all this would require additional budget, the officials said.

Similarly, officials of private power distribution companies informed about their plans for the 2010 Games.

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