There are currently expected to be far more visitors who want to attend the Games than there will be space for in the 90,000 rooms available and, with less than a year to go until the event opens, time is running out.

 

Banerjee said "It is estimated that there will be a requirement of an additional 30,000 hotel rooms for the Games.

 

"The Union Ministry of Tourism is therefore actively involved in monitoring the creation of additional accommodation for the purpose."

 

More than 100,000 foreign visitors are expected to attend the Games, which are due to open on October 3, 2010, and are the biggest event to be held in India since the 1982 Asian Games.
 
A  Parliamentary report published earlier this year predicted a shortfall of at least 14,000 rooms.
 
The situation has forced the Government and tourism officials to look elsewhere for accommodation, including encouraging private homeowners to sign up to bed and breakfast schemes and investigating the possibility of setting-up camp sites on army bases.
 

A new task force has now been formed to monitor the additional new hotels rooms being built or renovated and upgraded in Delhi and the National Capital Region.

 

Banerjee also said that the neighbouring state of Haryana will be providing a "major chunk of hotel accommodation[s] for the Commonwealth Games."

 

According to Banerjee, 6,632 rooms are available from there, of which 4,224 are ready to use now while the others need renovating.

 

Rajendra Kumar, the President of India's Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI), claimed that the problem could be solved as long as the Government used its imagination.

 

He said: "They should take into the fray the numerous one star and two star hotels in Delhi in the unorganised sector.

 

"Incentives should be provided to these hotels to revamp themselves and for hotels under construction to come up faster.

 

"With the countdown on [to the Commonwealth Games], you have to look at and run at every opportunity that will provide a room over night.

 

"You cannot build a hotel overnight.

 

"You will just have to make use of available resources."

 

 

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January 2009: Parliamentary report blasts Indian Government for lack of accommodation