Nehru Stadium may be ready by May next year

The Nehru Stadium,one of the main venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games which is way behind its construction schedule,may be ready by May next year with organisers deploying more engineers to complete the work within the revised timeframe.

The Nehru Stadium,one of the main venues for the 2010 Commonwealth Games which is way behind its construction schedule,may be ready by May next year with organisers deploying more engineers to complete the work within the revised timeframe.

The construction work at the stadium,which will host the opening and closing ceremonies and the showpiece athletic event during the Games,was initially supposed to be completed in February next year but failed to meet the deadline.

Everybody is happy with the preparations now. The work is progressing well Sports Minister M S Gill said after a meeting of the Group of Ministers (GoM).

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Regarding Nehru stadium,I told in the Rajya Sabha that it will be ready in June. But I am going to increase the number of engineers and hope it would be ready by May,Gill said.

The GoM,which meets virtually every week to keep a tab on the progress on various fronts,today took stock of the various projects related to the October 3-14 Games to be held in the capital.

The meeting was chaired by Urban Development minister S Jaipal Reddy and was attended by Sports Minister MS Gill,Tourism Minister Shailaja Kumari and Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit among others.

Chairman of the Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi was also invited to the meeting to brief the members on his recent meetings with CGF president Mike Fennell and on the overall progress of the Games projects.

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The opening and closing ceremonies also came up for discussion during the meeting.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) had taken a strong view of the delays in the construction work although it had noted that a significant progress has been made in the last couple of months.

Fennell,during his recent inspection tour,was critical on the delay of construction works and warned the Organising Committee that further delays would have an impact on the conduct of test events and overlay installation.

Fennell had expressed great disappointment at the Coordination Commissions report on the delayed delivery of the venues and particularly how far the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and S P Mukherjee Swimming Complex were behind the schedule.