The Hindu : Sport : C'wealth Games: venues finalised

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Thursday, Feb 08, 2007
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Sport - Sports : General

C'wealth Games: venues finalised

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: After months of dithering, the Organising Committee of the 2010 Commonwealth Games (OCCG) has finalised the venues for the Games.

The Infrastructure Coordination Committee of the OCCG, which met here on Tuesday, decided to stick to the Talkatora pool, the venue for the 1982 Asian Games, for swimming events.

Delhi University, originally chosen to house an aquatics complex and rugby ground, had pulled out of its commitment to host swimming, leaving the OCCG in an embarrassing situation with officials of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) pointing out the need to speed up things on each and every visit to the city.

No choice

The Talkatora pool was found unsuitable initially because of the lack of space within the complex as well as the traffic chaos that could be generated around that venue. Now, it seems, the OCCG has been left with little choice since land is scarce in the Capital and time is fast running out.

Delhi University has been retained as the venue for rugby 7s, though there was a view earlier that it should be deprived of that event also. The need to involve more and more youth in the venture has finally settled the argument.

Surprisingly, Delhi University, despite the distances involved, is being considered for a multi-purpose indoor hall for boxing, netball and weightlifting. An alternative site would be the Games Village near the Akshardham Temple Complex.

The Main Press Centre (MPC) and the International Broadcasting Centre (IBC) will be set up at Pragati Maidan.

Major additions

The Nehru Stadium will be the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies as well as athletics. Four new indoor stadia, at Indira Gandhi Sports Complex (wrestling), Thyagaraja Nagar Sports Complex (netball), Yamuna Sports Complex (table tennis) and two at Siri Fort Complex (badminton and squash), will be the major additions to the existing infrastructure. A new auditorium at the Nehru Stadium Complex, for weightlifting, is also planned. Sixteen new venues are being projected for training purposes.

Construction work is likely to start in June-July this year and all competition venues for the 17 sports disciplines are expected to be completed by October 2009.

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