Athletes' movement: Police says schedule not finalised

Published>Mon, Sep 13 10 12:57 PM

New Delhi, Sep 13 (IANS) Delhi Police are yet to prepare a detailed plan for the movement of Commonwealth Games athletes from their rooms to training sessions in various practice venues even as barely a week remains for the arrival of the players.

Police say the Games organising committee (OC) is to yet to hand over the detailed schedule of players and their movement plan and hence the delay.

Ajay Chadha, special commissioner, traffic, told IANS: 'We haven't received the plan from the OC. We need the schedule to see where the athletes would be going for training sessions and how many buses would be required for that. A final traffic arrangement can be made only when the OC hands us the schedule.'

The athletes are expected to arrive between Sep 20 and 23. Around 7,000 players and delegates are expected to arrive from 53 countries for the Oct 3-14 Games.

According to police, the traffic plan to ferry athletes from the Indira Gandhi International Airport to their hotel rooms has already been discussed.

'There would be restrictions on the Games lanes even during night hours from Sep 20-23. It is mainly due to the majority of international flights arriving here at night,' said Chadha.

Officials from various participating countries will start reaching the capital this week. 'The OC has already handed us a schedule pertaining to their arrival in the capital,' said Chadha.

But the main cause of worry for the traffic police is the schedule of the athletes and number of vehicles involved in their transportation to different venues for training purposes.

'There is not much time left. We need everything in time to arrange everything properly,' added Chadha.

Police have already started trial on the Games lanes to gauge the impact on the general traffic during the event. A slew of guidelines have been issued for motorists asking them to avoid the Games lanes failing which they would be fined Rs.2,000.

It has also asked motorists to make way for emergency vehicles like ambulances, police vans and fire brigades so these can reach venues in an emergency situation during the Commonwealth Games. If motorists fail to abide, they can be fined Rs.100.

The dedicated lanes will be used to ferry more than 15,000 people during the Games, besides thousands of OC staff and volunteers. The OC has divided these transport services into groups. The first group, T1, consists of a dedicated service of around 485 cars with drivers, which will transport delegates from their accommodation to venues and back.

T2 will be a motor pool of 1,000 cars available through a call car service while T3 will consist of 349 dedicated AC buses for the athletes. The shuttle service will be provided for individual sports as well as exclusive team buses for team sports.

Twenty five routes have been identified for transporting the athletes. A separate bus service will be provided for the media and technical officials. The transport services will be available from Sep 23.

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