Nehru stadium should be ready by May: Sports Minister Gill

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. Work is progressing well,” Sports Minister MS Gill said after a meeting of the Group of Ministers. “Regarding the Nehru stadium, I said 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 added.

The GoM, which meets virtually every week to keep a tab on the progress on various fronts, took stock on Tuesday 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 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.

The opening and closing ceremonies also came up for discussion during the meeting.
The Commonwealth Games Federation had taken a strong view of the delays in the construction work, although it had noted that significant progress has been made in the last couple of months. During his recent inspection tour, Fennell was critical of 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.