Oct. 3 (Bloomberg) -- India deployed thousands of security personnel in New Delhi for today’s opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games as the country hosts its biggest sporting event in almost three decades.
Britain’s Prince Charles and Indian President Pratibha Patil will jointly open the Games in the remodeled 60,000-seat Jawaharlal Stadium. Tickets are sold out for the ceremony, which will feature about 7,000 artists, a puppet show and yoga experts, while a giant helium-filled balloon towers above the stadium.
“We are getting frequent calls about the availability of any ticket for the opening ceremony,” Ajay Sahni, an official at the call center for ticketing, said in a telephone interview. “They are getting disappointed when we told them that all tickets are sold out.”
India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh looked to the 12-day competition involving 71 nations and territories to showcase the country as a destination for overseas investment. Instead, media reports of filthy accommodation for athletes, the collapse of a stadium footbridge and monsoon floods led teams to delay their arrival in New Delhi and threatened to deter the investors needed to drive growth in Asia’s third-biggest economy, Moody’s Analytics said on Sept. 24.
Police in the city canceled all leave and sent at least 100,000 officers, as well as roof-top snipers and helicopters, to protect 41 games-related sites, the airport and the village for athletes attending the games.
Shops, Schools Shut
Giant screens have been installed in some parts of the city for viewing the opening ceremony, while all shops, businesses, restaurants and malls are shut. Schools are already closed for two weeks.
“I am excited to perform in the evening today among so many spectators,” said Sudarshan Patnaik, a sand artist from the eastern state of Orissa, who will perform a “sand animation” to showcase a story on Mahatma Gandhi during a performance by Oscar-winning “Slumdog Millionaire” composer A.R. Rahman.
The government spent $4.6 billion upgrading stadiums, refurbishing roads, building overpasses, and power and water utilities to stage the event. About 15 kilometers of new metro line linking the stadium where the ceremony will be held was opened today, adding to the city’s urban rail network.
Cleaning, Rebuilding
Organizers, in the past two weeks, undertook a cleaning and rebuilding operation to have venues ready on time after newspaper headlines described dirty bathrooms and mattresses muddied by stray dogs at the games village, wiring and plumbing that didn’t work and the wounding of two Taiwanese nationals in a shooting at the city’s main mosque.
Singh, concerned the nation’s image was being sullied as teams from Scotland, Canada and New Zealand delayed their departure for the games, instructed ministers to closely monitor preparations as organizers pressed thousands of emergency workers into round-the-clock operations.
“After this tremendous mess, things seem to be falling in place,” said Ansgar Sickert, managing director of Fraport AG’s India unit, who has been living in New Delhi since 2006. “If everything goes through smoothly, the impression will be that India can pull it off.”
The atheletes’ village has had its first case of dengue fever, Reuters reported today. The member of India’s lawn bowling team, who has been in Delhi since March, may have got it from outside the games village, the report said, citing a hospital spokesperson.
Baton Relay
On the eve of the Oct. 3-14 games, the Queen’s baton, the event’s equivalent of the Olympic torch, made its way through central districts of the city after a 190,000-kilometer (118,000-mile) journey around competing nations.
Australia’s Dani Samuels, the discus world champion, and English triple-jumper Phillips Idowu were among athletes to withdraw from the event citing health and safety fears.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell said at a Sept. 25 press conference in Delhi he was disappointed with the Indian organizers and that the lack of preparedness for the sporting event has hurt the reputation of the country.
“A lot of damage has been done to India as a host country,” Fennell said. “I would hope at the end of all this, India would have learnt a great lesson.”
The negative publicity “could deter foreign investment and give multinational businesses considering expanding in India reason to think twice,” Matt Robinson, a senior economist at Moody’s Analytics in Sydney, said in a note.
‘We’ve Been Happy’
Steve Edwards, a 24-year-old member of the New Zealand men’s hockey team, said the work has paid off. “We heard reports that things weren’t so good, but we’ve been happy” with what we’ve seen so far, he said two days ago at the games village.
The event, held every four years and first staged in 1930, features 8,000 athletes and officials, most from the U.K. and its former colonies and dependencies.
Other venues were praised by competitors. “The range is amazing,” Canadian pistol shooter Patricia Boulay said in comments on Team Canada’s website. “It has all of the high-tech electronics that make for a great experience for both the shooters and the spectators.”
The capital’s central shopping district, Connaught Place, built by the British eight decades ago, was renovated for the games. The collapsed footbridge has been replaced by one built by army engineers in six days.
“The beautification work and other infrastructure has really improved life,” said Chandini Mehta, a marketing executive with the Neemrana chain of heritage hotels. “I am happy for Delhi.”
--With assistance from Bibhudatta Pradhan, Rakteem Katakey and Abhijit Roy Chowdhury in New Delhi and Madelene Pearson in Mumbai. Editors: Paul Tighe, Lena Lee.
To contact the reporters on this story: Subramaniam Sharma in New Delhi at ssharma@bloomberg.net; Tushar Dhara in New Delhi at tdhara1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Neil Denslow at ndenslow@bloomberg.net; Paul Tighe at ptighe@bloomberg.net.
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