Score keepers to arrive by Sept-end
Already under pressure for delay and pending work, the Games organisers are cutting it too fine when it comes to installing the all important Test Scoring and Results equipment at the competition venues. HT reports
Already under pressure for delay and pending work, the Games organisers are cutting it too fine when it comes to installing the all important Test Scoring and Results equipment at the competition venues.
According to the last status report made by the Sports Ministry for the PM’s office, the Organising Committee expects to commission the TSR equipment in the nick of time, by September 24 barely a week before the Games. The athletes will have arrived 10 days before, mid September.
The process surrounding the commissioning of the equipment has given the organisers some fresh reasons to worry.
International firm Swiss Timing, which is the Games vendor for TSR, will be bringing the expensive equipment only after dismantling them from the Singapore Youth Olympics completing by August 26. As a result, the organisers have no way but to leave such an important job for the eleventh hour.
“The TSR installation require immense testing and rigorous trials after installation in order to be absolutely foolproof. We don't know if we will have the time for all that,” said a senior OC official
While the norm in these Games is that athletes spend a lot of time at venues for acclimatization, there are doubts if that would be possible in September.
What has compounded the organisers’ problem is that the shipment arriving at the container depots for Customs clearance are taking abnormally more time because most items for overlays, etc, are meant for re export.
The officials at the depot are manually inspecting each item, noting down descriptions and serial numbers. When the same items appear for re export after the Games, they need to match the items with this information to see nothing is being left behind, as this amounts to smuggling.
“With piling of work, commissioning of the TSR looks like a challenge,” he said. But top officials assured that it would be a smooth sail.
“TSR and overlays will be completed on time. The firm in charge of the job is an international expert. Swimming, athletics and cycling are the main events for this system. We will have the time to install and test the system,” said Lalit Bhanot, OC Secretary General.