The athletes and delegates will not begin arriving in Delhi from September 15, as was expected earlier. Thanks to the delays in finishing works of various Games venues, practice venues and more importantly the Games village, all the athletes and the delegates, who had made their bookings beginning September 15 have
postponed their date of arrival by, at least, a week. With the confusion prevailing about when will the works be completed, they have not yet given an exact date. The Commonwealth Games Organising Committee and Delhi government officials earlier stated that all Games-related projects will be completed till 10 September.
While the Delhi government and OC missed the deadline to complete the Games projects yet again, the Union sports minister on Friday stated: “It would have been better if the Games were taking place a month later than the scheduled date.” The Delhi chief minister, Sheila Dikshit earlier in the week had announced, “God willing, the Games venues would be ready to be handed over only by September 10-15.” She then stated on the ongoing work on Games related projects, “this is as fine as it gets.” However, the Delhi government officials on Friday confessed that it was due to heavy rains that work has been prevented from being completed in time. So far, the September 10 deadline is the fifth deadline which has been missed. The Delhi chief minister now is claiming, “It seems that the rain god is unhappy with us. I will appeal to the rain God to bring some sunshine so that work can be completed.” If rain stopped, she added, work would be wound up by September 15.
Shockingly apart from the finishing touches to the stadiums, mounds of debris is yet to be cleared from the venue sites. “The debris is left at a few sites, however, it will not take much time to remove the debris once the work resumes,” said a senior Delhi government official. It is reliably learnt that the senior Delhi government officials on Friday met officials of the various civic agencies to discuss ways to quickly finish the pending projects. “The meeting took place soon after receiving a tip off that the athletes and delegates from various countries have decided to postpone their arrival in Delhi for the Games,” confirmed a highly placed source in the Delhi government.