Commonwealth delegates inspect India's preparedness for 2010 games

Oct 8, 2009, 9:06 GMT

New Delhi - Delegates from Commonwealth countries on Thursday inspected venues and facilities for the 2010 games scheduled to be held in Delhi amid concerns over India's preparedness to hold the event.

The Commonwealth Games are a slimmed down version of the Olympics and have 71 participating nations.

Each country sent at least one delegate for the assessment tour, a spokesman for the Games' organizing committee said.

The 110 delegates will visit various venues on Thursday and Friday and hold a general assembly on Monday, the spokesman said.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennel had expressed concern over tardy progress in work and India's reluctance to engage foreign experts in a letter to organizers in September that was leaked to the Indian media.

Fennel, who is accompanying the delegates, is scheduled to meet Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.

The organizing committee headed by Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi has been facing flak after an evaluation report from India's Auditor and Comptroller General in August said construction of several venues including the athletes' village was running far behind schedule.

According to estimates based on the report, about 64 per cent of work on the venues has been completed so far.

The concerned Singh recently held a meeting with top officials, including federal Sports Minister MS Gill, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Planning Commission chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.

The Games, to be held between October 3-14, 2010, are expected to involve over 6,000 athletes who will compete in 17 sports at venues across Delhi and its suburbs of Noida and Gurgaon.

The Commonwealth Games are the biggest sporting event to be held in India, one of Asia's fastest-growing economies, since the 1982 Asian Games.