Indian Express 03.11.201
Garbage piles, broken tiles... the rot has set in
As civic bodies and sports panels pass the buck, CWG venues seem to have become eyesores in just 20 days
If CWG competitions were to be held at the SPM Swimming Complex now, only athletic persons would be able to make it into the venue. Less than a month after the complex saw the end of the Games, an entire stretch of tiles at what was once the spectators’ entry-point has been ripped apart for taking out the wires beneath — making it difficult to enter. Besides this, bottles and plastic bags are strewn near the gate, while wires lie around in the corners.
The SPM Swimming Complex is not a case in isolation. It has only been 19 days since the Games ended, and most of the stadiums across the city already seem to have lost their sheen. When Newsline visited the Talkatora Stadium, SPM Swimming Complex and the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, garbage, broken branches and puddles could be seen at venues that were renovated at the cost of crores.
While Talkatora Stadium — which belongs to the NDMC — was cleaner than the other two, it also had garbage dumped in a corner. Its toilets, which were missing seat covers and door knobs, were in a filthy condition.
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium had empty mineral water-bottles, plastic and piles of dirt near the main gate. People entering through Gate 16 were greeted by a huge pile of plastic waste, thermocol sheets and bottles.
A worker at the venue told Newsline that the garbage had been lying there since October 14, the day of the closing ceremony.
“There are some cleaners here, but they clean only the inside of the stadium. There is no one to maintain the rest of the place,” he said. Outside the gate, fragments of glass lie littered. Some said vandals had smashed the outer glass covering of advertisement boards to steal the tubelights inside.
Meanwhile, as the garbage keeps piling at JLN Stadium and SPM complex, agencies in Delhi are passing the buck. While MCD says they were responsible for cleanliness only till the Games were on, the CPWD said as they have handed over the stadium to the Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games, maintaining it is not their job anymore.
H S Kingra, in charge of CWG stadiums for the Sports Authority of India (SAI), told Newsline that the rubble and garbage will be removed once it takes over. “The process of taking over a stadium includes a restoration estimation, which means that the CPWD, OC and SAI would jointly review the changes made to the stadium during the Games. After the estimate is done, it would be the OC’s responsibility to restore the stadiums to its original form and give it to the SAI. The rubble is part of the process to restore the stadiums. It will be taken care of soon,” he said.
Kingra added that the fields of play, however, are clear and the stadiums are being rented for hosting tournaments. “Even now, hockey matches are happening at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium,” he said.
