London Olympics, and beyond

[richard]

Sounds odd, but work for post-Olympic London has already begun. The blueprint for the 2012 London Olympic Games, which has earmarked an investment of £5.5 bn, clearly makes provisions for what needs to be done once the event is over.

The concept may help India, which is organising the 2010 Commonwealth Games and is likely to bid for the 2016 Olympic Games.

Lord Swaraj Paul, chairman of the Olympic Delivery Committee, said there had been a long-term agenda in investing such a huge amount of money in the Games.“There is a plan for a new city called Lee Valley near the Canary Wharf area in London. This will now be much easier because of the Games.

Our target is to look beyond 2012, and create a skilled workforce of construction labourers, chefs, designers, electricians, etc, besides a sound infrastructure for London. Work has begun even as the Olympics Bill is in Parliament,” Lord Paul said.

Already, £9 mn has been released to open up schools and train people in various fields.“The aim is to ensure that London gets something permanent. We must look at the future needs of the city.

For example, we will open up a training school for chefs at the East End area in London where many Bangladeshis live - they are very good cooks. By the time the event is over, many new restaurants will come up, and our trained chefs will be absorbed somewhere or the other,” he said.

Though the key tasks for the Olympic Delivery Committee include acquiring land and providing infrastructure to the city, the committee will finally surrender these responsibilites to the Olympic Delivery Authority.

The delivery authority will be created once it is approved by Parliament which may take another six months to one year. However, the committee will continue its work beyond the event so as to keep the Olympic legacy and enhance London’s prestige internationally.

The creation of the Olympic city will, however, lead to the deplacement of about 2,500 families and 400 shops, restaurants etc. But the spin-offs are huge.

Some of the new housing complexes will be sold to ordinary people. “It will be a right mix of sports and non-sports categories in the newly developed area.

We will not only have new housing complexes for people, but also sports schools to ensure that infrastructure created for the Olympics is used even later. We will invest £5.5 bn for the Games and its infrastructure, but a lot of private investment will also come to make London ready for the Games,” he added.


Source
SHANTANU NANDAN SHARMA
economictimes.indiatimes.com