Mike Fennell, the President of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), warned during the group's Assembly which has been held in the Indian capital this week that he still had fears about next year's event, which is due to open on October 3 and run until October 14.

 

After six days of inspecting the venues and the Games Village, Fennell had said that all the members of the CGF were reassured that the infrastructure and facilities would be ready in time for the necessary overlay installations and test events.

 

But Fennell also said that there still remained a lot of "areas of concerns", specially at the operational level, and has asked Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the local organising committee, to overhaul the procurement process.

 

He said: "Two years ago, I had told the organising committee that there was not much time left.

 

"With one year to go for the Games, I say time is your enemy, but together we can defeat it and I emphasise we can do it.

 

"Every single day is critical and every hour vital.

 

"It is in the spirit of togetherness that we will move forward hand in hand to the success of the Games.

 

"CGF will appoint a high-level technical review panel.

 

"The panel will comprise of a chairman and other members will be experts of their respective fields.

 

"The panel will come and meet every month.

 

"It will monitor and assist in the evaluation of all areas that we feel need attention.

 

"The panel will be empowered to call in other technical experts and to meet Commonwealth Games representatives

 

"The panel will establish time-line and report monthly in an open and transparent fashion to all stakeholders, the Prime Minister of India, the Government of Delhi, organising Committee and the CGF.

 

"By having this review board report in the public domain, all involved with the Commonwealth Games can gain confidence that Delhi will be ready by September next year."

 

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected].

 

 

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