AGL 37.99 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.08%)
AIRLINK 215.53 Increased By ▲ 18.17 (9.21%)
BOP 9.80 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (2.73%)
CNERGY 6.79 Increased By ▲ 0.88 (14.89%)
DCL 9.17 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (3.97%)
DFML 38.96 Increased By ▲ 3.22 (9.01%)
DGKC 100.25 Increased By ▲ 3.39 (3.5%)
FCCL 36.70 Increased By ▲ 1.45 (4.11%)
FFBL 88.94 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
FFL 14.49 Increased By ▲ 1.32 (10.02%)
HUBC 134.13 Increased By ▲ 6.58 (5.16%)
HUMNL 13.63 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (0.96%)
KEL 5.69 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (6.95%)
KOSM 7.32 Increased By ▲ 0.32 (4.57%)
MLCF 45.87 Increased By ▲ 1.17 (2.62%)
NBP 61.28 Decreased By ▼ -0.14 (-0.23%)
OGDC 232.59 Increased By ▲ 17.92 (8.35%)
PAEL 40.73 Increased By ▲ 1.94 (5%)
PIBTL 8.58 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (4%)
PPL 203.34 Increased By ▲ 10.26 (5.31%)
PRL 40.81 Increased By ▲ 2.15 (5.56%)
PTC 28.31 Increased By ▲ 2.51 (9.73%)
SEARL 108.51 Increased By ▲ 4.91 (4.74%)
TELE 8.74 Increased By ▲ 0.44 (5.3%)
TOMCL 35.83 Increased By ▲ 0.83 (2.37%)
TPLP 13.84 Increased By ▲ 0.54 (4.06%)
TREET 24.38 Increased By ▲ 2.22 (10.02%)
TRG 61.15 Increased By ▲ 5.56 (10%)
UNITY 34.84 Increased By ▲ 1.87 (5.67%)
WTL 1.72 Increased By ▲ 0.12 (7.5%)
BR100 12,244 Increased By 517.6 (4.41%)
BR30 38,419 Increased By 2042.6 (5.62%)
KSE100 113,924 Increased By 4411.3 (4.03%)
KSE30 36,044 Increased By 1530.5 (4.43%)

Tokyo's scandal-tinged Olympic stadium will be completed in time for the 2020 games, the city's governor said Wednesday, as London mayor Boris Johnson warned of the pitfalls of "playing politics" when hosting the competition. Japan's preparations for the global games suffered a humiliating setback this summer when the government pulled the plug on its flagship stadium following spiralling costs and complaints over the design.
Organisers have instead opted for a cheaper alternative stadium which must now be rushed to be completed in time. "Co-operating with the national government... we will do everything we can so that we will complete construction of a new national stadium by January 2020," Tokyo governor Yoichi Masuzoe told reporters Wednesday.
He added that the six new venues being built for the games were all "proceeding on schedule". Masuzoe also welcomed London's famously eccentric mayor Johnson, who won an election shortly before that city hosted the 2012 Olympics. Those games were held at a fraction of the cost of Beijing's four years earlier and came in significantly under budget - a rarity in the notoriously spendthrift world of Olympic hosting.
At the time it was cancelled, Tokyo's stadium - designed by British architect Zaha Hadid - was on track to become the world's most expensive with a $2.0 billion price tag. Asked by reporters what the key to London's success was, Johnson said it was competent communication among all government and city departments involved in preparing the games. "And that was the case all across all party lines. There was nobody who tried to make politics... that was I think very, very important for our success," he said.
Tokyo's stadium fiasco has pushed back a new venue's completion date, embarrassing Japanese sport officials who have also been forced to find an alternate showpiece site for Rugby World Cup matches in 2019. Some have expressed concerns about Tokyo hosting the games in the summer, when the city often experiences intense heat.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2015

Comments

Comments are closed.