THE ILL-FATED Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, just 12 days away, suffered another major setback yesterday after a footbridge near the events main stadium collapsed, injuring at least 23 labourers, five of them seriously.
Police officials said the steel arch supporting the 164-foot long footbridge collapsed outside the Nehru Stadium, which will host the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics events of India’s fortnight-long showpiece event beginning on October 3rd.
The bridge, linking the car and bus parking lot to the stadium, which is now a mass of mangled steel, was to have transported thousands of athletes, officials and spectators to the main venue.
The chief engineer of the games, Rakesh Mishra, said a loose pin on the bridge’s steel structure had given way while ‘‘concreting’’ of the road beneath was in progress.
He said an inquiry had been ordered into the incident, which he admitted was a setback but claimed the damage would soon be rectified.
A few months ago the watchdog Central Vigilance Commission had accused the games’s organising committee of shoddy construction of many venues and claimed that questionable completion certificates had been granted for them.
Organising committee head and ruling Congress Party MP Suresh Kalmadi, however, dismissed these allegations, reiterating that the event would be the ‘‘best ever, even better than the 2008 Beijing Olympics’’.
Preparations for the games that end on October 14th are down to the wire and the event risks descending into farce, with large-scale construction work on various sporting venues still under way.
In an emergency move, the cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar has now been put in charge to complete the preparations.
Games officials said all incomplete work would be finished within 36 hours.
But Michael Fennel, head of the Commonwealth Games Federation, issued a damning statement yesterday after the athletes’ village was inspected by several participating nations, who were “shocked” by what they saw.
“Many nations that have already sent their advance parties to set up within the village made it abundantly clear that, as of the afternoon of September 20th, the Commonwealth Games village is seriously compromised,” Mr Fennel said.
Toilets in the athletes’ village were leaking and choked, building debris was piled high in bedrooms and bathrooms and wiring in residential rooms were incomplete. Power was erratic or simply not working and the area around the games was inundated with water from the rain, becoming a breeding ground for disease.
Games chief executive Mike Hooper said conditions in the games village were “filthy” and uninhabitable and desperately needed cleaning.
“The reality is that if the village is not ready and athletes can’t come, the implications are that it’s not going to happen,” New Zealand’s chef de mission Dave Currie said.
Security was a major concern after two Taiwanese tourists were shot and injured by gunmen on a motorcycle reportedly from an Islamist group in Delhi’s walled city area on Sunday.
Several Islamist organisations with links to al-Qaeda had threatened to disrupt the games. Armed Maoist insurgents also posed a threat.
Senior police officials conceded that security measures like closed-circuit televisions, ‘‘boom’’ barriers restricting vehicular movement and other associated equipment were still being installed.
