At Commonwealth Games Village, delay was the only constant-Wed Sep 29 2010-

At Commonwealth Games Village, delay was the only constant


Posted: Wed Sep 29 2010, 02:44 hrs

Even before the first bricks had been laid at the proposed site, the Games Village was standing on weak ground. Complicated negotiations with the UP government on acquiring a portion of the land, year-long protests by environmental activists and the 2008 slowdown contributed to the delays at the Village.


When Delhi won the bid to host the multi-sport event in November 2003, the Union Cabinet in principle approved setting up of the Village on the Yamuna banks at a cost of Rs 180 crore. According to sources, the budget has now burgeoned to a staggering Rs 1,200 crore or more. However, the Union Cabinet signing the proposal was a mere formality. The Delhi Development Authority was to start the process of getting environmental and other clearances.


With no news on the status of the Village, in February 2005, Commonwealth Games Federation boss Mike Fennell issued “gentle warnings” to the authorities to get cracking. Around July 2005, environmental activists started talking about the threats posed by building on the Yamuna riverbed. While eco groups were building momentum for a wide-scale protest, the DDA issued statements expressing confidence that work would be over well in time. “We have enough time to develop the Village. By 2006-end, the planning and designing will be over and by 2009 all types of construction will be completed,” DDA’s then Vice-Chairman Dinesh Rai said on December 2005.


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Land dispute
The DDA was, meanwhile, confronted by a belligerent UP government that wanted various perks in exchange for a portion of the land where the International Zone was to be built. “They wanted to use a proposed freight corridor for commercial purposes. A lot of time was spent in negotiating the terms of acquiring the land,” a senior DDA official said. By August 2006, the negotiations were close to completion and DDA announced that it hoped to get construction underway by April 2007. Developer Emaar-MGF was awarded the contract in July 2007. By this time, the budget had risen to Rs 900 crore.


Eco hurdle
But 2007 was annus horribilis for the Village. Construction was held up for over 100 days by a group of environmentalists under the banner of Yamuna Satyagraha. An associated group called Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan shot off letters to everyone, from IOC chief Suresh Kalmadi to the Prime Minister and the President, and even to the executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme (Nairobi) Achim Steiner. The Yamuna Satyagraha began a constant vigil on the site. The international media also started highlighting wide-scale displacement at the site. The Delhi BJP supported the activists, as did DU students, and INTACH announced that high-rises would lead to permanent damage on the river bed. A PIL was filed in the Delhi High Court. The court responded by recommending that an eco panel be set up under Nobel Laureate R K Pachauri. The SC stayed the ruling, finally lifting it in July 2009.


By this point, construction had come to a standstill because labourers complained they had not been paid by contractor Ahluwalia Constructions, who in turn complained that they had not been paid by developer Emaar-MGF, which had taken a hit due to the global meltdown. Again time was wasted negotiating a bailout package between DDA and Emaar-MGF.