Key venues for the 2014 Commonwealth Games are behind schedule for completion and ministers have not formed a plan for handling future problems, auditors have found.A report by Audit Scotland said the new national indoor sports arena is being delayed, along with the revamp of the national swimming centre in Glasgow.The report was written before organisers admitted this week there was £81 million ‘black hole’ in the event’s budget, but predicted the original £373 million cost could escalate.It... Read Full Story

Inaugurating the Delhi Pavillion at the 29th India International Trade Fair, chief minister Sheila Dikshit took the opportunity to build momentum for the Commonwealth Games 2010 also the theme for this year's Delhi Pavillion. With Games mascot Shera dancing away at the entrance and the stalls inside highlighting all development works being carried out in the city, visitors will get a glimpse of the changing face of Delhi."The theme has been selected with an aim to get ready for a big internat... Read Full Story

Within a year, important railway stations in and around the Capital will boast of security similar to the snazzy airports.Work on a massive upgrade of the security arrangement at the 10 most important stations in Delhi and its neighbourhood has started with a sanctioned budget of more than Rs 23 crore.Apart from mega-terminal stations like New Delhi, Old Delhi and Nizamuddin, satellite stations such as Ghaziabad and Anand Vihar too will come under the comprehensive security net.The scale of t... Read Full Story

Vinod Mistry is sitting at a labour chowk--a place where men gather in search of construction jobs --in south Delhi's Kotla Mubarakpur neighbourhood. He hasn't found work in the six days he has waited at the spot for a contractor to hire him.Mistry is surrounded by 10 other men, all from villages around Jhansi in Uttar Pradesh.Nearly 200 more men are waiting similarly at various points on the road that leads from Kotla Mubarakpur to Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where a Rs550 crore renovation is ... Read Full Story

The Delhi High Court Wednesday objected to an indoor basketball stadium being built in a park in west Delhi for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and asked the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) to restore the premises to its old form.A division bench of Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah and Justice S. Muralidhar told the MCD to undo the construction that has come up in Ajmal Khan Park in Karol Bagh.'All construction should be removed and the park should be restored in its initial phase,' it said.... Read Full Story

The budget for the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is to be increased by 81 million pounds.The organising committee for the games said funding for the event would rise to a total of 454 million pounds.The bulk of the extra cash will come from the Scottish government. The city council will provide an additional nine million pounds.The Scottish government will contribute an additional 39 million pounds, plus a further 20 million pounds from a reserve fund.A total of 13 million pounds will be... Read Full Story

Ahead of next year’s Commonwealth Games, the tourist guides’ association in Agra has come up with its problems.With the countdown for the next year’s major event beginning, it is believed that Agra would be a major draw for thousands of members from athletic delegations and foreign tourists.The tourist guides’ association says that a list of 25 experienced guides has been provided to the authorities but they are showing favouritism by promoting just a few.The association says it would be diff... Read Full Story

The Delhi High Court Monday slapped a total fine of Rs.17,000 on petitioners challenging the Badarpur-Mathura road highway project being developed by the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) for the Commonwealth Games 2010.A division bench comprising Justices Vikaramjit Sen and V.K. Jain slapped a fine of Rs.1,000 each on the 17 petitioners who had alleged that NHAI has wrongly acquired the land for the development of the highway on the heavily congested Badarpur-Mathura road.NHAI, dev... Read Full Story

Netball was played in England for the first time in 1895. At the time, there were no fixed regulations for the Games, even the nets used were ineffective — they were not open at both ends, so after each goal was scored, the umpire had to retrieve the ball from the top of the post.Over 114 years later, India is going to get its first netball stadium being built by Delhi government's Public Works Department which has a host of interesting features.The stadium has a capacity of 4,494. The grand ... Read Full Story

Taking inspiration from the Beijing Olympics held last year, the Delhi government, too, is keen to display its commitment towards the conservation of environment to the world. It plans to introduce ‘hybrid’ electric buses during the Commonwealth Games to be held in October 2010.These hybrid buses will run on CNG and electric energy, and the government plans to station them at all 11 Games venues to transport athletes and spectators. It may also possibly give joyrides to inquisitive visitors.W... Read Full Story