Asian Games venues ‘95% ready’ but pitfalls remain
JAKARTA: Asian Games venues will be ready before Indonesia hosts the showpiece event in a month, organisers say, but the threat of terror attacks and endless traffic jams still looms over the huge tournament. An army of labourers has been toiling around the clock to finish building work, widen roads and plant trees in a breakneck bid to beautify Jakarta, a teeming metropolis that many visitors find tough to love.
The athletes’ village looks ready, but some competitors may need nose pegs -- it backs out onto a toxic, foul-smelling river.
Jakarta and Palembang in Sumatra are set to host about 11,000 athletes and 5,000 officials from 45 Asian countries for the August 18 to September 2 Games, the world’s biggest multi-sport event behind the Olympics.
Apart from a still-unfinished squash complex, most venues appear nearly done.
The Gelora Bung Karno main stadium, used when Indonesia last hosted the Games in 1962, has undergone a major renovation for the 30 trillion rupiah ($2 billion) event.
“I think all the venues, from what I see... 95 per cent should be finished by end of July,” chief organiser Erick Thohir, chairman of Inter Milan, said last week.
Indonesia started with less time than most host countries. It agreed to host the Games when Vietnam pulled out, citing concerns over preparations and the heavy financial burden.
Jakarta then moved the 40-sport Games forward by a year to 2018 to avoid a clash with national elections.
But organisers insist it won’t be a repeat of the 2004 Athens Olympics when the main stadium was completed just weeks before the opening ceremony, or Brazil’s 2014 World Cup which went ahead in unfinished venues.
The worst-case scenario remains New Delhi’s 2010 Commonwealth Games, where problems ranged from filthy conditions at the athletes’ village to collapsing infrastructure.