CWG: Weightlifting auditorium’s roof leaks, Gill says no need to panic

Zeenews Bureau New Delhi: Adding to the compounding woes of the Commonwealth Games Organising Committee, the roof of the weightlifting auditorium, which was inaugurated earlier today, started leaking after the heavy downpour that brought the city to a standstill on Sunday. According to reports, the roof of the weightlifting auditorium, built close to the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium started leaking after the heavy showers, which resulted in water accumulating inside that section of the stadium. However, sports minister MS Gill has said that there is no need to panic and that the problem would be sorted out soon.The weightlifting auditorium, which has been built at a whopping cost of Rs 80 crore, is the only stadium amongst those constructed for the upcoming Commonwealth Games that has been built in an auditorium style. Earlier, the remodelled, 60,000 capacity Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium -- showpiece venue for the Commonwealth Games`s opening and closing ceremonies and athletic events - - was finally inaugurated Tuesday, just two months before the formal inauguration of the Games on Oct 3. The stadium, with its international look that included striking green turf, synthetic running track and sparkling blue seats, was originally built for the 1982 Asian Games. It was inaugurated by Sports Minister M.S. Gill in the presence of Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and Commonwealth Games organising committee chief Suresh Kalmadi. The stadium, refurbished at a cost of a whopping Rs.9.6 billion (approximately USD 200 million), will host the athletics, weightlifting and lawn ball disciplines. International consultants from six countries - Germany, Switzerland, UK, US, Mexico and Australia - put their contributed their skills and knowhow together to construct the state-of-the-art facility. Gill said that government has finally completed the task of constructing the venues for the Games slated for Oct 3-14 in which more than 10,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries and teams will take part. Gill said that it was a complex engineering structure and the first of its kind in India in the design of the innovative coated-glass fibre roof that had no support from inside the stadium. He congratulated all the engineers, designers and contractors for their hard work in completing the venue. There are three independent structures of main stadium building - lower tier, main building and supporting structure for membrane roof. The earthquake resistant building has a two tier seating arrangement. The training area will have nine sprint synthetic tracks and warm-up areas for throwing and the final warm-up synthetic track is inside the main stadium. Among the important features of the stadium are high definition television transmission, state of art sports lighting and a specially designed underground tunnel for the opening and closing ceremonies. But the most innovative feature of the stadium is the membrane cable roof which alone cost Rs.100 crore (USD 20 million). The membrane roof made of coated glass fibre is the largest in Asia. It has around 443 tonnes of pre-stretched cable with a length of 2,200 km. The roof was built without any perpendicular support from inside the stadium. It has been built with new support extending up to 71 metres into the stands.