Bridge Collapse Adds Safety to Terror Fears Before Delhi Games

New Delhi is struggling with construction, cleanliness and safety leading up to next month’s over-budget Commonwealth Games, failing its first test in an audition for other major sporting events. Photographer: Manpreet Romana/AFP/Getty Images

England will send its first group of athletes to New Delhi for the Commonwealth Games tomorrow as the over-budget event struggles with construction, cleanliness and safety.

Twenty-two of the 369-member squad will travel to India as planned, Caroline Searle, the team’s chief press officer, said in an interview. Some teams and athletes have delayed their departures because of questions about the facilities and security.

“We have made the decision that those first athletes will get on the flight tomorrow night, unless anything develops in the next twenty-four hours,” Searle said.

English triple-jumper Phillips Idowu withdrew yesterday, while his teammates Christine Ohuruogu, the Olympic 400-meter champion, and Lisa Dobriskey, who won silver in the 1,500 meters at the world championships, said they will miss the event because of injury.

Sending the first English athletes to India doesn’t mean the entire team will travel, Commonwealth Games England chairman Andrew Foster told the British Broadcasting Corp.

“We are still needing further assurances from the Indian authorities,” Foster said. The team has eight people in New Delhi monitoring the situation.

“There are significant blocks in the road that need to be removed,” Foster told the BBC. A final decision will be made in the next “two to three days.”

Bridge Collapse

Twenty-seven people were injured yesterday when a footbridge collapsed near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, home to the opening and closing ceremonies, television channel CNN-IBN reported. Adding to organizers’ woes, a section of false ceiling at the weightlifting venue collapsed today, CNN-IBN said. Scotland’s team delayed the departure of its first group of competitors.

The athlete’s village, scheduled to open tomorrow, still has some unfinished plumbing and electrical work. Jon Doig, head of the Scottish delegation, said yesterday that some apartments are covered with feces from stray dogs and laborers. There’s been an outbreak of dengue fever, monsoon floods and security concerns after the Sept. 19 shooting of two Taiwanese near a mosque.

‘Seriously Compromised’

“The Commonwealth Games village is seriously compromised,” Michael Fennell, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, said yesterday in a statement. “Significant operational matters remain unaddressed.”

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Jan. 26 that the event, which gathers 8,000 athletes and officials from the U.K. and its former colonies and dependencies, would show how his country “is rapidly marching ahead with confidence.” He has now ordered a probe into preparations for the quadrennial Games, which start Oct. 3. Government spending has surpassed $4.6 billion -- more than nine times as much as the December 2003 estimate of $500 million.

The collapse of the footbridge, connecting the main stadium to a parking lot, presented yet another challenge to organizers.

“It’s just a footbridge,” Jaipal Reddy, the urban development minister told CNN-IBN. “If you had said to me that this was Nehru Stadium, then that would be something.”

Lalit Bhanot, secretary-general of the organizing committee, told reporters the complex would be clean when athletes start arriving tomorrow.

Weather

Part of the trouble with preparation comes from bad weather, India’s Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna told the BBC World News.

“Unfortunately the prolonged monsoon in India has contributed in no small measure to the preparations of this major event,” Krishna said. “I can assure you with all the confidence at my level that we will be able to deliver on the Commonwealth Games.”

India’s Central Vigilance Commission, which investigates allegations of corruption in government projects, is examining seven complaints about procurement, and is carrying out oversight of 16 Games-related construction projects totaling 23.2 billion rupees ($508 million), the commission said yesterday in response to a question from Bloomberg News.

Australia’s Dani Samuels, the discus world champion, dropped out yesterday, citing security and health concerns. The Australian government warned there was a “high risk of terrorism” after the shootings outside Delhi’s main mosque.

“The decision on whether to travel to India for the Commonwealth Games is one for individuals to make,” Australian Sports Minister Mark Arbib told reporters in Sydney. “The government cannot tell people not to compete.”

Most Expensive

Even before this week’s complaints by attendees, the Games have been criticized as the most expensive ever by India’s Comptroller and opposition parties in a nation where the World Bank says 828 million people live on less than $2 a day.

India has spent at least $4.6 billion upgrading stadiums, refurbishing roads and building power and water utilities. It spent another $2.7 billion on a new airport terminal.

While the international zone and main dining area have been praised, deadlines for completion of the athletes’ village are constantly being pushed out, Fennell said. Security around the site is “slowing progress and complicating solutions,” he said.

To contact the reporters on this story: Mehul Srivastava in New Delhi at msrivastava6@bloomberg.net; Danielle Rossingh in London at drossingh@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Elser at at celser@bloomberg.net