Bumpy ride ahead for athletes on dedicated lanes

The road to the Commonwealth Games venues seems to be quite troublesome. Literally. The dedicated lanes — right from IGI airport to the Games Village in east Delhi; from the hotels in central Delhi to the 13 venues across the national capital region — are in need of immediate repair. Subhendu Ray reports.

The road to the Commonwealth Games venues seems to be quite troublesome. Literally. The dedicated lanes — right from IGI airport to the Games Village in east Delhi; from the hotels in central Delhi to the 13 venues across the national capital region — are in need of immediate repair.

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Several roads that fall on the Games routes are either badly damaged or prone to waterlogging. The Traffic police are now going to write letters to the agencies concerned to immediately repair the roads and ensure that all roads are repaired before September 20, when the athletes will start arriving in the city.

"We will issue letters to all the departments concerned, including the PWD, NDMC, MCD and DIAL, on Tuesday asking them to repair the roads on a war footing," a senior traffic police officer said.

According to the traffic department, if the agencies cannot prevent waterlogging, they should have special machineries deployed to deal with waterlogging complaints.

DTC to bear athletes' transportation cost

Delhi government has finally agreed to bear the transportation cost of athletes, delegates and mediapersons visiting the Capital during the Games.

The Delhi Transport Corporation will provide 574 low-floor AC, and about 350 non-AC low-floor and standard floor buses to ferry the contingents during the 10-day sporting event. Cash-starved DTC is likely to spend R45 crore on this facility. The government expected the Organising committee to foot the bill. Senior officials said the OC refused to reimburse DTC and asked the delhi government to bear the cost on the virtue of being the host city.