Blogging Fusion

The police force in New Delhi is going to have a mass recruitment drive of police constables and other ranks keeping in view, the security arrangements for the upcoming Commonwealth Games 2010. Post Mumbai terror attacks the security during the commonwealth games is of prime concern for the government.

Delhi Police Commissioner Y S Dadwal, who heads the force, announced in a news conference that the recruitment is part of the drive to ensure security during the Games.

We have taken substantial steps to ensure security in the city. Recruitment at various levels has reached an advanced stage. Around 4,500 constables will join by March 15. We are announcing another 6,500 posts for constables and 550 (vacancies) for the sub inspector posts. Whatever vacant posts we have will be filled up by 2010 Common wealth Games. This is our plan and we hope to be successful in that, he added.

The Commonwealth Games are scheduled to be held in New Delhi, between October 3 and October 14, 2010.

This is the first time the Commonwealth Games will be held in India, which will be the third developing country to host the event after Jamaica in 1966 and Malaysia in 1998. This is the second time the event has been held in Asia after 1998. India has previously hosted the Asian Games in 1951 and 1982.

Haryana is contributing with nearly 7,000 rooms for India?s showpiece event, the Commonwealth Games 2010 in New Delhi, which is expected to see over 150,000 visitors but preparations for which are running sadly behind schedule.

The rooms being offered by Haryana will be in the National Capital Region (NCR).

"The government of India had demanded 10,000 rooms from Haryana Tourism in the NCR region for the Commonwealth Games. About 7,000 rooms are already ready and the remaining will be built and done up by 2009-end," Tourism and Sports Minister Kiran Chaudhary told IANS.

Haryana Tourism, the state government tourism agency once famous for the successful run of its highway resorts and eateries in the 1970s and 80s, is making sure that the rooms are in place for the October 2010 Games.

New Delhi is expected to receive over 150,000 visitors from India and abroad during the Games. Hotel industry experts put the requirement during the Games at over 30,000 rooms. Most of these will be in the budget hotel category. The host city at present has arrangements for just over 10,000 rooms.

Haryana surrounds Delhi from three sides with two major cities, Gurgaon and Faridabad, adjoining the national capital.

"The Indian government has sanctioned a sum of Rs.360 million to Haryana Tourism in the current financial year for upgradation of tourism infrastructure in the state. A total amount of Rs.870 million was sanctioned during the last four years - the highest recorded in the last 20 years," said Chaudhary.

Haryana even proposes to bring in legislation to adopt the government of India?s ?Bed and Breakfast? (B&B) scheme on the Delhi pattern.

"With the formulation of a new tourism policy by the Haryana government, it would not be difficult for us to meet the demand for rooms and provide ample earning opportunities for people in the state," Chaudhary added.

The B&B scheme, evolved by the Delhi government last year, involves residents having properties and facilities in Delhi to lodge tourists coming from abroad and other states as paying guests within a regulated framework.

Residents of NCR areas in Haryana will be able to offer similar B&B facilities at affordable rates, tourism officials say.

Over half of the existing 800 hotel rooms in Haryana?s NCR areas are being upgraded, Chaudhary said.

"The new institute of hotel management (IHM) being set up in Rohtak will provide hotel industry professionals for the infrastructure being created for the games," Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said.

Global hotel investment service firm Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels (JLLH), in a recently released report, stated that New Delhi could get up to 50,000 foreign visitors for the Games.

Earlier in 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had expressed his dissatisfaction at the pace of preparedness for the Games, especially in developing infrastructure and providing rooms for the event.

The organising committee of the Games, the Indian Olympic Association (IOA), and tourism and sports ministry officials had assured him that things would be in place before the event.

The national capital will have five new stadiums and a Games village for the Commonwealth Games 2010 to be held in October.

The Games are expected to cost India a whopping Rs.40 billion with much of the cost to be footed by the central government.

Sports Minister MS Gill has asked the national federations to quickly settle contracts with coaches and ensure timely availability of sports and support equipment for the benefit of athletes undergoing training for the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

The directions were given after a review meeting of the progress of the 'Scheme for Preparation of Teams for Commonwealth Games' and and identification of steps required to further improve the working of this Scheme.

On the basis of feedback received during the meeting, which was attended by office bearers of different federations, officers of Sports Authority of India and Indian Olympic Association, several steps were identified to make the Scheme work more efficiently.

"The Sports Minister has given direction for ensuring that sports and support equipment and consumables are made available in time, contracts with coaches are settled expeditiously, progress of the Scheme be monitored closely and kits to sports persons coming to camps be given without any delay," a release from the Ministry said on Wednesday.

"It was also decided to make available training facilities at non-SAI venues in certain locations like Chennai for Swimming, Hyderabad for Badminton, Pune for Tennis and Shooting etc," it said.

Under the Scheme, which would cost the Government Rs 678 crores, the selection process for identifying about 1300 elite players, in 17 disciplines, 250 coaches (both Indian and foreign), and about 80 supporting personnel (physiotherapists, psychologist, masseurs etc) has been completed.

These elite players will be fully funded by Government, for intensive training of 305 days, in a year, both within, and outside the country. They will also be provided state of art, equipments, training and greater exposure in domestic and international tournaments.

The players will be assessed at regular intervals, through pre-decided monitorable parameters, till their final selection for Commonwealth Games.

The coaching camps for the selected players have commenced at the various centers of Sports Authority of India.

Efforts by the minister of sports/chairman, National Sports Commission, Engr. Sani Muhammad Ndanusa to reposition and re-brand the commission, sports federations and grassroots sports development ahead of the 2010 Commonwealth Games, 2011 All Africa Games and the 2012 London Olympic Games have been challenged by top management of NSC who believe that the new sports minister must deviate from the old system of administering sports with papers and files to meeting the coaches and athletes in the field.

Leadership sports gathered that a top management staff told the minister during a meeting with management staff of NSC that if he wants to succeed in using sports to achieve the seven-point-agenda of the federal government, he should be ready to put on the boots and jersies to meet the athletes in the field.

"When the minister meets the coaches and athletes in the field, he will understand their problems and needs. It is the athletes that will give him result and not the pseudo-experts in the NSC".

The minister was also advised at the top management meeting to strictly adhere to the commission's budget.

"Nigerians do not want to know how much was budgeted for the commission, but how the budget whether small or large is being used to achieve desired results. We must train our athletes. The commission must be seen as athlete-friendly and the grassroots sports development as well as school sports must be given direct attention. If Nigeria must excel at the next commonwealth and Olympic games, this is the time to invest in athletes development. The NSC should reposition all the 33 national sports federations to make them effective, efficient and functional in 2009.

"The athletes must be given priority by way of improved incentives, training facilities and avoidance of the "Fire brigade" approach" in preparing for competitions. Staying in the office will not do the minister any good. He has to go to the field where the measuring lines for success and failure are found," the source said.

Chief minister Sheila Dikshit assured continuous power supply at all 2010 Commonwealth Games venues. She also told that the largest gas-based power project in northern India at Bawana would be commissioned months before the Games.

Dikshit made these claims after auditing the Pragati Power III project with Union minister of state for power Jairam Ramesh on Saturday. She further stated that the 150 MW Bawana power project was being considered for a certificate giving it mega power status.

Dikshit's visit comes days after she had held a review meeting on power related issues with officials where she had asked discoms to take steps to bring relief to the consumers.

The chief minister also stated that gas supply arrangements have already been signed with GAIL, IOC and BPCL and that GAIL had started laying the pipeline and installation of gas terminal at site. An official release said a turnkey contract was awarded to BHEL on April 30 this year and NTPC has been engaged as consultant on the project. BHEL has already placed order for gas turbines and their tests would be conducted in February 2009.

Dikshit also stated that gas turbine-I would start generating 250 MW in March 2010, gas turbine-II would generate another 250 MW in May, gas turbine-III would also generate 250 MW in July. A steam turbine-I would generate 250 MW in July 2010 whereas rest 500 MW would be generated before commencement of the Games by gas turbine-IV and steam turbine-II.

Meanwhile, Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda recently claimed that the first unit of 500 MW of the 1500 MW Indira Gandhi Super Thermal Power project at Jhajjar would commence power generation by June 2010. As per agreement between the two states, Delhi and Haryana would have 50-50 share of the electricity generated from the plant.

If you have been planning to visit India - whether to engross Goa's glorious sands or ogle the Taj Mahal - at present a convivial to pack your bags. Hotel tariffs have plumped by a banging 30%, the Indian government has unleashed a batch of tourist-friendly sops and travel brokers and airlines are extending great deals.

With the fateful mix of a global economical slowdown and terror attacks eroding the development of tourist arrivals in India, tourism has taken a beating. The Mumbai terror attacks on November 26, industry experts? regret, have ruined the tourism season even as it was unrolling. As a result, compared to the 30% growth in the sector in 2007 - and double-digit growth for the past five years - the country is expected to post a tourist arrival increase of zip this year.

This is a counterpoint from 2007, during which India saw a record number of visitors from abroad and a sharp rise in foreign exchange earnings through tourism. The number of foreign tourists in India touched a record 5 million in 2007, an increase of 12% from 2006. The approximated tourism earnings in 2007 were US$11.96 billion, compared to $8.93 billion in 2006.

This year, even till August, things were not actually so bad. Foreign arrivals had increased 10.4% compared with the comparable period last year. The foreign exchange earnings during the equivalent period rose 21.5%. Buoyed up with this growth, the industry had set itself an challenging target to more than double the number of arrivals to 10 million by 2010, when New Delhi will host the 2010 Commonwealth Games.

But all this looks unattainable now due to a compounding factors, including a plunge in the number of arrivals for the first time in six years by 2.1% in November, traditionally regarded as the beginning of the peak season. The number of visitors in November nose-dived from 532,000 in 2007 to 521,000, while the corresponding foreign exchange earnings from visitors dipped by 12.5% to $1 billion.

To make matters worse, in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attacks, almost 50% of bulk bookings by visitors (largely from Britain, Europe and the US) were cancelled. Travel advisories issued by the US, Britain, Australia, Canada and Singapore advising against travel to India did nothing to help things. According to Himmat Anand, co-chair of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry's tourism committee, along with corporate reservations which usually plunge at this time, no fresh bookings have been forthcoming. "India has suddenly vanished from overseas tourists' itineraries this year," he said.

What has further worsened the situation is that on account of a record tourist turnout last year, operators had invested heavily in infrastructure upgrades and refurbishments which are now cumulatively adding to their losses. "This has been among the worst times for Indian tourism in recent history," said Anil Kalsi, chairman (northern region) of the Travel Agents Association of India.

With panic buttons buzzing everywhere, the Ministry of Tourism has been forced to take pressing steps to gain footfalls to the country. It is now working on a war footing with trade associations and airlines to thrust visitor numbers through a slew of measures. The Ministry of Tourism has establish state-level committees comprised of representatives from trade associations and ministries to investigate various aspects of tourism management. Tourism Minister Ambika Soni has also urged governments of various countries not to issue travel advisories against India, simultaneously sending a message of reassurance to the world community that India is a "safe" destination.

To prevent the sector from plunging into further gloom, the Tourism Ministry is also working proactively with travel operators to revitalise inbound tourist traffic. As a part of the "promote India campaign", for instance, tour operators have been asked to pair hotel tariffs with airfares and offer attractive bonuses to visitors. Those who visit India this year will be offered sops like discounted packages for rural tourism, adventure tourism and wellness tourism on their next visit. Tour operators are also offering to sponsor at least 1,000 tourism industry reps to take a free trip to India for discussions.

Meanwhile, the ministry is computing the modalities of giving visas to tourists on arrival to further boost unencumbered travel to India. It is also expounding 22 new mega tourism destinations across the nation at an outlay of 250 million rupees (US$5.1 million) to 1 billion rupees for each destination, to infuse novelty into visitors' itineraries. To give rural tourism a push, 130 more villages have been identified as templates to showcase India's heterogeneous culture. Financial support to tour operators promoting India in the international arena has also been ratcheted up.

The government would do well to fire on all cylinders, considering that after the Mumbai massacre group bookings to popular tourist destinations like Goa, Jaipur and Kerala have plummeted remarkably. "The meltdown mayhem coupled with Mumbai's terror attacks have severely impacted Indian tourism," said Subhash Goyal, erstwhile president of Indian Association of Tour Operators. "It has had a cascading effect down the hospitality chain - from travel agents to the airlines to rent-a-car companies to the hotels."

Five-star hotel tariffs in Delhi have hit an all-time low. A room can now be had in the range of 8,000 rupees to 10,000 rupees, even though the same room fetched between 12,000 to 15,000 rupees last year. Ergo, to create demand, many hotels and resorts are offering a "Global Meltdown Tariff" which flings off 30% off the normal fare.

However, despite a raft of measures taken by the government and the hospitality sector to rejuvenate inbound tourism, industry players are still a tad wary about the Christmas-New Year season, which accounts for the bulk of their annual business.

"Ironically, this is the time when trade is [usually] booming," said Prateek Ghai of Globe Travels, a New-Delhi based travel agency. "But this time, due to a combination of factors, things are looking far too bleak!"