Aug 1 deadline to confirm presence
The Games organisers have given foreign delegates from the Commonwealth nations time till August 1 to confirm their participation in the event, now barely three months away, reports Avishek G Dastidar
The Games organisers have given foreign delegates from the Commonwealth nations time till August 1 to confirm their participation in the event, now barely three months away.
If the delegates do not confirm their visit by then, the hundreds of rooms reserved for them by the organisers in five- and four-star hotels will not be available anymore. That could lead to an accommodation crunch.
The hotels would “unblock” the rooms whose reservations are not confirmed by the Organising Committee (OC) by August 1. “We have told the delegates to finalise their participation details and inform us as early as possible. We need to make the arrangements at our end well in advance,” said Suresh Kalmadi, chairman of the Organising Committee.
The organisers were supposed to confirm the accommodation at the hotels 90 days ahead of the Games, but due to lack of bookings from foreign delegates, the OC sought more time from the hotels.
“Hotels gave us time up till 60 days before the D-day to confirm the bookings,” T.S. Darbari, Joint Director General of Organising Committee told a gathering of High Commissio-ners and senior officials of the High Commissions of 11 Commonwealth nations on Monday.
The Organising Committee, for the first time, did a reality check on the various concerns of the governments of the Commonwealth nations through a daylong interaction with the High Commissioners and top officials of the consulates on Monday.
One key concern that emerged out of the session was that several foreign government representatives did not yet know about how to participate — hospitality arrangements, ticket availability, visa facilitation, points of contact in India and the like.
“The African nations have an issue that our heads of states and top government officials have not yet been invited. High Commissions in Delhi are also not receiving any intimation from the organisers. This could create a problem during the event,” said Dr Shabbir H. Peerbhai, High Commissioner of the Kingdom of Lesotho.