The city administration may have been critcised for arrangements made for the kabaddi world cup final on Saturday, but, at the end of the day, officials, though with some hitches, pulled off the event successfully - courtesy hours of hard work and meticulous planning.
It took dozens of meetings between deputy commissioner Rahul Tewari and other officials to ensure everything went according to plan.
Right from receiving the VVIPs, including the Pakistan delegation and Bollywood stars, to technical issues like switching the floodlights off and on with clockwork-like precision, the district administration was responsible for everything.
Municipal engineers, artistes of 'WIZCRAFT' and sports department officials had to meet several times to ensure nothing went awry. "The DC pulled us up many a times. But, looking at his diligence to manage everything, we ignored everything," a senior official said.
Similarly, to ensure proper distribution of drinking water and snacks during the event to important guests, mediapersons, players, officials and invitees was a tedious exercise as all the dignitaries were seated in different stands and movement was restricted during the event for security purposes.
Even the entry and exit of Katrina Kaif was not simple. District authorities had to bring her to Ludhiana's Hotel Park Plaza from Amritsar airport. She also had to be then taken to her vanity van in the stadium.
{{/usCountry}}Even the entry and exit of Katrina Kaif was not simple. District authorities had to bring her to Ludhiana's Hotel Park Plaza from Amritsar airport. She also had to be then taken to her vanity van in the stadium.
{{/usCountry}}Given her "water-tight schedule", she was later driven to Amritsar from where she flew back the same night.
IAS officers along with the staff of suwidha centres worked for three day to ensure "zero hick-ups" in the media centre, which was equipped with faxes, scanners, computers with Internet, and multimedia communication facilities on a makeshift stage.
Four hundred employees of 14 departments, more than 2,500 policemen and civil officers successfully managed a brigade of 7,00 hundred artists from Wizcraft, the event manager, in addition to the VVIPs, VIPs and the 40,000 spectators who thronged the stadium.