Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Sunday inspected venues in New Delhi where the Commonwealth Games will be held in October, urging organisers to overcome delays that threaten to ruin the event. Many sports facilities have yet to be completed 35 days before the Games begin, while new roads, flyovers and metro lines are also behind schedule amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement.
Singh urged authorities "to redouble their efforts to quickly complete whatever works remained as the people were expecting a spectacular and flawless opening to the Commonwealth Games," a statement from his office said.
He visited the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, where renovation work is still underway to prepare for the opening and closing ceremonies and the athletics events.
An anti-corruption body earlier this month found a host of problems with construction projects, including the use of poor-quality materials, allegations of fake building safety certificates and financial kickbacks.
New Delhi's chief minister Sheila Dikshit admitted that confusion over who was responsible for preparation of the Games had caused many delays.
"There is a terrible problem of multiplicity of authority," she said in comments broadcast by CNN-IBN television station on Sunday.
She also said she had been stuck in traffic jams up to two-and-a-half hours long while trying to visit areas of the city undergoing hurried construction work.
The government has been accused of distancing itself from the Games as hopes that the event would be a symbol of modern India's recent economic development have turned into fears of a national embarrassment.
Games officials have been warning the city for more than a year that in-fighting and corruption had to stop if the venues, athletes' village and transport network were going to be up to international standards.
Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Michael Fennell has had a stormy relationship with Indian organisers, pointing to the main stadium, the swimming pool complex and the weightlifting arena as key areas of concern.
Last year a damaging public row erupted when Suresh Kalmadi, head of the organising committee, unsuccessfully demanded CGF chief executive officer Mike Hooper be sacked.
Security and health concerns have unnerved some of the 7,000 competitors expected in New Delhi, while the absence of big name attractions such as sprinter Usain Bolt have resulted in sluggish ticket sales.
Charities have also accused the government of relying on desperately poor, underpaid migrant workers to complete construction projects using inadequate safety equipment.
The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) said Singh was making a belated attempt to tackle the growing sense of desperation surrounding the event.
"After all this time that he has been sleeping, we find the Indian prime minister suddenly waking up to become an inspector," BJP spokesman Rajiv Pratap Rudi told AFP.
The Commonwealth Games, the biggest multi-sport event to be staged in India since the Asian Games in 1982, will feature 71 nations and territories mainly from the former British empire.
The 12-day Games, which open on October 3, are already the costliest in history, with an infrastructure and organising budget of two billion dollars.
Frenzied last-minute preparations have been slowed by heavy monsoon downpours in Delhi, with the weather office predicting more rain in September.
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