Ready, set — wait. . . India not ready for Commonwealth Games yet

Reporting from New Delhi — 

About the only thing beating expectations ahead of the Commonwealth Games here is the mosquito population, helpfully delivering a dengue fever epidemic that is expected to peak just in time for the opening ceremony early next month.

The mosquito-borne illness has struck more than 7,000 people across India, including two top cyclists. (The 7,000 athletes and team officials who are about to descend on New Delhi might want to pack some bug spray: Their village is in a prime mosquito breeding area along the fetid Yamuna River. Unusually heavy monsoon rains have worsened the situation)

When India won the bid in 2003 to host one of the world’s biggest sporting events, boosters said it would propel New Delhi into the ranks of Tokyo, New York and other world-class cities. Others, mindful that a certain faster-developing Asian neighbor successfully hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, saw it as a practice run in “shining India’s” bid for the 2020 Olympics.

With the Games opening in less than three weeks, there’s more tarnish than shine amid reports of massive budget overruns, rampant alleged corruption, shoddy workmanship, poor planning, weak accountability and bureaucratic infighting.

The lead-up to the event has been a litany of unfinished stadiums, collapsed roofs and caved-in roads — some resurfaced more than once after someone forgot to lay sewer and power lines first.

At least one official has compared the preparations to a big Bollywood wedding in which, after the initial pandemonium, everything comes together for a happy ending.

But even the most blushing of brides wouldn’t forget the caterers: Despite seven years to prepare, the contract to feed many of the athletes, coaches and support staff was awarded only late last month, with organizers forced to have the specialized equipment needed to prepare hundreds of thousands of meals shipped by air at an added cost of $7.5 million.

At least seven “final” deadlines have been blown, and construction at venues and related urban-renewal projects is woefully behind. The latest deadline was Sept. 15. But Connaught Place, the city’s showcase shopping district, remains a maze of trenches and debris, prompting one newspaper to dub it “Chaos Place.”

“Even if the [prime minister] starts wiping the floor, the venues won’t be ready for the Games,” said opposition politician and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who called the event preparation a “debacle.”

Reports of financial irregularities have also dogged preparations in a nation rated 84th on watchdog Transparency International’s corruption perception index of 180 countries — one novelist termed the Games a “lootfest” — including $85 toilet paper dispensers, $19,500 rented treadmills, $130 wastebaskets, and questionable consulting and real estate deals. The original $133-million administrative budget could reach $516 million, not counting more than $6 billion spent on stadiums and upgrading the capital.

“The obvious issue of corruption has tainted the whole thing,” said Boria Majumdar, coauthor of the book “Sellotape Legacy” about the Oct. 3-14 Games. “This was supposed to be a portrayal of ‘India shining.’ What a disappointment.”

As near-daily disclosures of alleged irregularities surfaced in August, Sonia Gandhi, leader of the ruling Congress Party, announced that a full investigation would be held, but only after the Games.

Those in charge have denied wrongdoing and defended their oversight. “It is normal for every Games to have some charges or the other,” said Suresh Kalmadi, head of the organizing committee.

With political careers, and India’s reputation, at stake, there’s a lot riding on the Games, the third-largest multidisciplinary sporting event after the Olympics and the Asian Games, a 1930s legacy of British colonialism born amid concern that the United States was dominating the Olympics.

“We are on track,” Kalmadi told foreign reporters recently. “Leaving aside some minor glitches, the infrastructure are in place and they are world class.”

Most cities hosting big events have last-minute problems, and New Delhi has had a particularly heavy monsoon season this year, further delaying construction.

But some say the bigger problem is man-made as weak oversight undermined coordination in India’s legendary bureaucracy. When India successfully hosted the 1982 Asian Games, then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi took personal charge.

Awarded the Commonwealth Games in 2003, India didn’t form an organizing committee until 2005, and construction, enmeshed in legal challenges, didn’t begin in earnest until 2007. The committee resisted outside expertise, contending it was too expensive, even as a 2009 report warned that 20 of 34 basic requirements for successful Games were deficient.

New Delhi has received good marks for its security arrangements, even as one humorous Hindustan Times column suggested that Islamic extremists might be flummoxed by all the unfinished construction. “Setting off bombs inside your vest will take more than a little skill when you are five feet deep in mud and cement,” it said.

In an eleventh-hour bid to hit reset, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh late last month appointed 10 top officials to assume greater oversight, although some observers fear it could be too little.

“It’s like trying to save a cancer patient at the end, rather than catching it early,” said Novy Kapadia, a sports commentator. “Unfortunately, not meeting the deadlines will make a lot of stereotypes come out, that Indians are lazy, not efficient. India’s reputation is taking a massive beating.”

Local enthusiasm remains weak, with more than 70% of residents surveyed saying the expense was unjustified. Ticket and merchandise sales started only in late August, and sponsors, foreign visitors, dignitaries and headline athletes are shying away as broadcasting revenues fall well below projections.

The shoddy construction, meanwhile, has some wondering what lasting legacy the Games will leave beyond a new subway, an airport terminal and some highway overpasses.

“There’s been so much focus on pomp and glitter in the obsession with being a global city, when what we need is drainage, sewers, basic health issues,” said Gautam Bhatia, an architect. “Without the budget for maintenance, I’m afraid the stadiums will fall apart.”

Although many are still hoping for a last-minute miracle, the growing list of problems has some questioning the wedding analogy. As an editorial in the business newspaper Mint put it, “This is turning out to be a wedding that will make prospective in-laws think twice about India.”

mark.magnier@latimes.com

Anshul Rana in The Times’ New Delhi Bureau contributed to this report.