Games ’10... tick tock tick tock

With just 364 days to go for the Commonwealth Games (CW), the agencies involved in the preparations have turned their focus on soft infrastructure. See Graphics

With just 364 days to go for the Commonwealth Games (CW), the agencies involved in the preparations have turned their focus on soft infrastructure.

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Training the volunteers for the Games is one such aspect the CW Games Organising Committee (OC) is now giving finishing touches to.

The city will be home to 30,000 volunteers set to serve as the face of the Games that will start on October 3, 2010.

The first group of 200 volunteers for the Commonwealth Games completed their training on Saturday.

This batch will be put on duty during the eight-day-long CW Games General Assembly meet starting in the Capital from Tuesday (October 6).

The representatives of all the 71 Commonwealth countries will be in Delhi for the meeting to take stock of the preparations.

The first batch of volunteers will facilitate the movement of guests during the general assembly. On Saturday, they were trained to handle medical emergencies and briefed on disaster preparedness. About 200 volunteers from various hotel management institutes and Delhi university colleges are part of the batch.

“These youngsters have been trained to handle different aspects like media coordination, attending to delegates and guiding them,” said Manjushree S Roy, director, Volunteer Programme.

The volunteers themselves are very enthusiastic.

“Association with such a big sporting event is a lifetime opportunity. I am eagerly looking forward to be a part of it. It’s a great learning experience,” said 20-year-old Gautam Khosla, a second year student of Institute of Hotel Management, Pusa.

These volunteers will complement the efforts of members of the 17 functional areas in the Organising Committee (OC).

Apart from college and university students, NCC cadets and the general public, about 100 international volunteers - from countries like Britain, Australia and New Zealand - will offer their service to the foreign visitors during the Games.