Athletes' movement schedule received, say police

Monday, Sep 13, 2010



 Delhi traffic police Monday received a tentative schedule for the movement of Commonwealth Games athletes from their rooms to 26 practice venues. The Games organising committee (OC) has handed over the schedule hardly a week before the athletes are expected to arrive from 53 countries in the capital.

'We have received a tentative schedule and traffic arrangements will be done according to it,' said Special Commissioner (Traffic) Ajay Chadha. 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 schedule pertaining to the arrival of the athletes and the Games officials were handed to the police much earlier.

The main cause of worry for the traffic police was about the schedule of the athletes and number of vehicles involved in their transportation to different venues for training purposes. But with the schedule now, the traffic police are engaged in preparing a detailed plan for their movement.

'The schedule was needed to see where and when the athletes would be going for the training sessions and and how many buses would be required to ferry them,' added Chadha.

There are 26 practice venues for different games which include Yamuna Sports Complex, Major Dhyan Chand National stadium, Delhi Public School, R.K. Puram, Delhi University, Thyagaraj Sports Complex, Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range CRPF Campus, Kadarpur, Siri Fort Sports Complex and R.K. Khanna Sports Complex.

Police have already started trials 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.

Police have 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.

Original news source http://sify.com/news/athletes-movement-schedule-received-say-police-news-national-kjnvuxedafh.html