Everything will finish on time, reiterates OC

Finally, the 2010 Commonwealth Games Organising Committee (CGOC) has revealed some specifics. The volunteer programme that is planning to rope in 30,000 workers will be launched on July 1. "Not just that, we have decided on when we will hold the trial games to test the venues," vice chairman of the organising committee Randhir Singh said after the coordination committee meeting on Tuesday. Interestingly, this comes immediately after HT had published a five-part series to show how grossly under prepared Delhi is for the Commonwealth Games.

Volunteer programme

The programme will be launched on July 1. VK Verma, Badminton Association of India chief, said: "We have a requirement of the 30,000 people, double that of Melbourne. We will shortlist the volunteers who will be given general training from September 1."

"They will be then identified for specific tasks and will be trained from December '09," he said.

Trial Games

The Trial Games to test various venues will be held from August 1 to 12, 2010. The CGOC has also assured that all the work at the venues would finish on time. "We are confident to host the trial games by August 1 next year," said Singh.

The CGOC has also instructed all national federations to hold high-quality sports events at their respective venues from February to June 2010. "We will monitor it," said Singh.

With all the work running behind schedule, some of the trial games have already been postponed or shifted out of Delhi. One such event is the World Badminton Championship that had to be shifted to Hyderabad.

The Commonwealth Boxing Championships scheduled for October 1 had to be postponed. "We can hold it if the Indian Boxing Federation postpones it for a month," said Singh.

"We will be hosting the Asian Championship in Delhi in April-May next year and it should be the perfect testing event, both for the players and the venue," said Verma.

Venue update

The Velodrome and the Games Village will be the only two venues that will be completed in 2010. "All other venues will be ready by the end of this year," assured Singh. The Games Village should be done by March 1. "The Village will be handed over to us by June."

Committee meetings

The CGOC also denied that there was a lack of coordination between the 22 committees that have been formed for the Games.

"We have had over 500 meetings between the various committees and there is complete coordination," said Lalit Bhanot, secretary, OC.