After Olympics bid, India sets sights on hosting 2030 Commonwealth Games

Over the past week, CGF president Chris Jenkins and main enforcement Katie Sadlier travelled to aggregate cities successful India, gathering authorities and cardinal authorities ministers and elder bureaucrats successful Gandhinagar, Bhubaneswar and New Delhi. They besides toured imaginable venues successful Ahmedabad and Bhubaneswar.

On the sidelines of the National Games opening ceremonial successful Dehradun, Jenkins besides met Indian Olympic Association (IOA) president P T Usha wherever the imaginable Indian bid was discussed. The IOA doubles up arsenic the governing assemblage for the Commonwealth Games successful India.

It is learnt that during their conversation, Jenkins laid down the timelines, with March 31 being the deadline to taxable an authoritative Expression of Interest (EOI).

In a connection to The Indian Express, the CGF said: “CGF President Chris Jenkins was precocious invited to be the opening ceremonial of the National Games successful India, taking this accidental to proceed to fortify ties betwixt India, Commonwealth Games India, and Commonwealth Sport. The CGF precocious enactment retired the telephone for Expressions of Interest for the 2030 Commonwealth Games and beyond, and, during his sojourn to India, President Jenkins had immoderate informal chats astir this process.”

Jenkins spent 3 days successful Ahmedabad past week, wherever helium held meetings with Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, State Sports Minister Harsh Sanghavi and elder authorities officials. During these meetings, the authorities reasserted its ambition to big the 2036 Olympics and behaviour aggregate world, Asian and Commonwealth events successful the build-up.

Games Federation president Chris Jenkins and CEO Katie Sadlier with Indian authorities officials astatine the Kalinga Stadium successful Bhubaneswar. (Credit: @sports_odisha/X)

Jenkins and Sadlier besides visited the Narendra Modi Stadium, the soon-to-be-launched Naranpura Sports Complex and the EKA Arena. “They were rather impressed, determination are nary 2 ways astir it. The mentation present is connected an Olympic scale, truthful determination were nary concerns implicit the venues,” an authoritative said.

Ahmedabad’s involvement is successful enactment with the state’s program to big a slew of planetary multidisciplinary events and large continental, Commonwealth and world-level tournaments to summation hosting experience. The 2030 CWG is the latest connected the wishlist that includes the 2027 women’s volleyball satellite championship, the 2028 Asian swimming title and 2028 World U20 Athletics Championships, the Commonwealth Weightlifting Championship, the South Asian Games, World Beach Games and World Military Games, among others.

The involvement from India comes astatine a clip erstwhile the CGF has recovered fewer takers to big its flagship event. In 2022, Durban was chosen arsenic the big but the South African metropolis aboriginal pulled retired citing fiscal reasons. Birmingham was past named the caller host.

Similarly, the Australian authorities of Victoria gave up the hosting rights aft winning the bid for the 2026 CWG. After a Commonwealth-wide hunt, Glasgow stepped up to rescue the Games. However, dissimilar the erstwhile editions, Glasgow CWG volition lone beryllium a 10-sport lawsuit with a choky headdress connected the fig of athletes to marque it affordable.

The setback forced the CGF to travel up with caller hosting models and, officials said, Jenkins and Sadlier impressed upon their Indian counterparts that nether the caller measures, big cities are nary longer required to conception a peculiar athletes’ colony oregon physique caller venues.

This, the Indian officials estimated, could trim the costs by “almost 60 per cent”. “Ahmedabad volition already person a batch of venues acceptable successful the adjacent 3 to 4 years. These venues are being built to foster a sporting culture, careless of whether India wins the bid to big the 2036 Olympics,” the authoritative said.

“The Naranpura Sports Complex volition beryllium acceptable successful March; the Narendra Modi Stadium and the EKA Arena are already determination and it is hoped that the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (SVP) Sports Enclave and the facilities successful Karai volition beryllium acceptable by then,” the authoritative said.

As per the Gujarat government’s plan, the SVP Sports Enclave volition location the Narendra Modi Stadium, a multi-purpose indoor arena, aquatics and tennis centres arsenic imperishable venues. In Karai, an athletics stadium is being constructed on with a shooting analyzable and an indoor arena. The deadline to implicit the full task is 2028.