Main Press Centre to become operational soon

After facing flak over poor facilities for the media during the Commonwealth Games test events, the Organising Committee (OC) on Monday informed about the arrangements made for national and international journalists who will be covering the event in October.

After facing flak over poor facilities for the media during the Commonwealth Games test events, the Organising Committee (OC) on Monday informed about the arrangements made for national and international journalists who will be covering the event in October.

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Head of press operation for the Games, Manish Kumar said, "Taking into account the problems that the media faced during the coverage of the test events, we have made adequate arrangements so that no problems are faced during the games."

The Main Press Centre (MPC) is located in Pragati Maidan and will be available for use from September 23, and from October 1-15, the centre will be open 24 hours.

Kumar added, "MPC has 600 workstations for the press and photo areas, with Wi-Fi and high speed internet."

"It also has two press conference rooms and a similar number of interview rooms," he said.

Other facilities include high-definition live feed area, rate card offices for agencies, a media lounge, food court and a retail plaza also having a camera repair centre.

Apart from the MPC, proper facilities will also be provided at the Venue Media Centres and Games Village Media Centre.

Apart from the facilities that will be there at the MPC the Games Village will comprise of an international zone which will allow access to accredited journalists only.

Around 600 volunteers from both India and United Kingdom will be present to assist the media at the competition and non-competition venues as around 1200 national and 800 international journalists are expected to cover the Games.

However, a problem, which the OC officials have still not resolved is providing proper parking facilities at the venues.

Chairman of media publicity Commonwealth Games, Tarlochan Singh said, "Parking of private vehicles will be an issue looking at the traffic scenario in the city but sufficient number of buses are available with us for the media personnel to use during the games in October."