According to a Delhi based NGO, Hazards Center, the total cost of the
Commonwealth Games (CWG) was Rs.55,398 crore; this eclipses even the cost of Beijing Olympics! For records, Delhi hosted the most costly CWG till date, surpassing Melbourne in 2006 whose approximate expenditure was $1.1 billion. There is a lot of apprehension regarding the maintenance of the world class stadiums like Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium and National Stadium post the CWG. The government, after lot of deliberations, has come out with a plan called “legacy planning” where it will involve private partners. According to the plan, the government will retain the ownership of the stadiums; and private players – who will be responsible for maintenance of the stadiums – can use them for sporting events. The Sports Authority of India (SAI) has included five stadiums in this mode.The total cost of upgrading the stadiums stands at a staggering Rs.4459 crores; these include Indira Gandhi Stadium at Rs.669 crores and Dr. Karni Singh stadium at Rs.149 crores! Remarkably, building an entire new state-of-the-art Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad cost less than one-sixth of the amount spent on renovating the Delhi based Indira Gandhi stadium! The list of expenses also included the facelift that the entire city of Delhi got for CWG. The total cost apparently has been Rs.41,212 crores, meant specifically for a facelift during the games. It include Rs.16,887 crores for Delhi Metro phase 2, new DTC buses worth Rs.1,800 crores, new power plants for the CWG with an accumulated cost of Rs.12,000 crores, and Delhi’s sewage and drainage renovation with an outlay of Rs.4000 crores. However, one wonders whether the same ‘kind’ of fund allocation would continue now that the games are is over – or would the state of infrastructure return to the ill maintained, unkempt form, which is a norm for public sector operations.
Coming back to the stadiums – in spite of the advantages of Private-Public-Partnership (PPP), there are certain issues about the usage of the stadiums if given to private hands! In the past, world class stadiums have often been used for non-sporting events like entertainment concerts, marriage parties, et al. Fortunately, the government has prepared a list of activities that will not be allowed on these grounds/venues so that private programs do not misuse the costly infrastructure.
The importance of PPP is particularly significant in India because of the fact that preserving our infrastructure is not really the strong suit of our governments. For instance, the Government has miserably failed to maintain the stadiums built for Asian Games in 1982 primarily because of poor planning and sheer ignorance of the importance of the issue. SAI is hopeful that private players' participation can be more effective in maintaining the stadiums, while they will get the branding and sponsorship rights on any event that takes place in the stadiums. The track records of PPP initiatives substantiate that PPP has wonderfully refurbished tainted image of many social and infrastructural initiatives. Can something similar be expected in this case too? For that, one would have to wait and see the private parties that get the contracts – well, not every group in this country has as high ethics as the Tatas..
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
IIPM Prof. Arindam Chaudhuri on Internet Hooliganism
Pakistani Soldiers Killed in Border Fighting
ABN AMRO seeks India bank licence
IIPM announces Anna Hazare Fellowship
GIDF Club of IIPM Lucknow Organizes Blood Donation Camp
Mobile application for Nokia phones is launched by The Times of India
Watching porn video is not a crime
Why your wife or girlfriend seems "off sex" of late?
No comments:
Post a Comment