NEW DELHI, 15 November 2003 — New Delhi has been chosen to host the 2010 Commonwealth Games, the event’s governing body said, becoming only the second Asian host in the games’ 80-year history.
Indian sports officials hailed the move as a victory for the Indian capital and for the Commonwealth movement.
“We are very, very happy,” Indian Olympic Association President Suresh Kalmadi told Reuters from the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) congress in Jamaica after Thursday’s vote.
The federation opted for New Delhi by an overwhelming 46-22 margin over its only rival, the Canadian city of Hamilton.
“People in CGF realized there had been injustice with India and the big margin is a testimony of that,” Kalmadi said.
“Fifty percent of the Commonwealth stays in India. We are a billion-strong people and it can be regarded as a victory for the Commonwealth movement.”
With a projected games budget of $420 million, it will also be a major boost for the sprawling Indian capital of almost 14 million people.
“It will transform Delhi in a major way like the 1982 Asian Games did,” said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, a senior sports official and a ruling party lawmaker in Delhi.
Lalit Bhanot, secretary of the Indian athletics federation, said: “In 1982, several flyovers and stadia changed the face of Delhi. This games will also have a similar impact.”
Millions of dollars will have to be sent upgrading the city’s overloaded infrastructure. The event will also draw tens of thousands of tourists, competitors, officials and journalists, giving a major boost to the economy.
New Delhi lost its bid to host the 1994 games to Victoria, Canada, and had argued the event should be shifted outside Britain, Australia and Canada which between them have hosted most of the games since they began in 1930.
They also said India, as one of the former British empire’s most significant colonies and Asia’s third-largest economy, was an ideal venue.
Kalmadi said the games would provide a huge boost to Olympic sports in India, where most people are largely indifferent to any sport but cricket, and bring millions of dollars in investment.
“We will work hard to finish at the top of the table in 2010,” he said.
New Delhi hosted the inaugural Asian Games in 1951 and again in 1982 but lost its bid for 2006 to Doha, the capital of Qatar, gaining just one vote in addition to its own.
Indian sports officials this time were backed by the federal and Delhi state governments, which pledged to bear cost overruns.
Delhi’s campaign to become the second Asian city to host the Commonwealth Games after Kuala Lumpur in 1998 was also boosted after Vancouver was awarded the 2010 Winter Olympics.
