Games village buzzing in run-up to kick-off

The village, with 400 air-conditioned dwelling units, will host 5,000 athletes and officials

Participants arrive at the National Games Village set up at Menamkulam, near Kazhakuttam, Thiruvananthapuram, on Friday.— Photo: S. Mahinsha

“Where are the housekeeping staff? When will the bed sheets and water bottles for each of the rooms be brought here?” an official asks a volunteer.

Before he can reply, a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. employee who has come to set up an Internet connection at one of the ‘official’ blocks checks the surroundings and asks, “But, haven’t you bought the modem yet? You need to buy a modem before we can set up this connection. For now, the phone is working fine.”

Soon, another volunteer runs in and requests the official to stop the new registration of athletes for an hour. “We don’t have the proper list of athletes to whom rooms were allocated. It seems some have brought their family members too. We need to stop the registration for an hour to get the accreditations sorted.”

At the National Games village at Menamkulam, situated 3 km from the new stadium at Karyavattom, it was a scramble on Friday.

Comprising more than 400 air-conditioned dwelling units, each of them made of fibre, the village will play host to around 5,000 athletes and officials over the course of the games. Each unit can house 12 people.

On Thursday night, the first batch of 1,000-odd athletes arrived here. The few young volunteers here, drawn from various physical education colleges, made sure that the athletes were comfortable. But worries remained even on Thursday noon, as the dedicated housekeeping team was yet to arrive, though the young volunteers and Kudumbasree members filled in remarkably.

Working without any glitches was the catering hall, with enough fare to satisfy the taste buds of people from all corners of the country.

Beautification of the village was still afoot in the afternoon. A group was seen placing a Theyyam figure adjacent to a small pond. Near another block, statues of a Thiruvathira group were placed, the plastic covers on it yet to be removed. A stage has been set up for cultural programmes and get-togethers in the evenings.

In addition to gun-wielding security staff, who keep a strict vigil at the entrance, a few people from the locality have been hired by a private agency for additional security. “Our main duty is to see whether anyone from the men’s block is jumping over to the women’s block. The fibre windows of the units are easy to remove and jump out,” says one of them.