A typical piece in The Australian, informs us what most of us suspected, but hoped would have changed - India does not have the wherewithal to host a major sporting event. Visitors travelling to the Delhi Commonwealth Games, would be forced into tents, given that Delhi is short of hotel rooms.

A shortage of hotel rooms and excessively expensive accommodation have forced authorities to announce guidelines for tented accommodation that allow tourist operators to establish camps during the games for visitors to the overcrowded city of more than 15 million.

The tent towns are seen as the only way to provide accommodation for the crowds expected for the Commonwealth Games. India is estimated to have a a shortage of 150,000 hotel rooms, and there will be no way of providing the 44,000 extra rooms required for the games.  The plan to provide tents follows an attempt to develop a bed-and-breakfast scheme in private homes, but this added only 500 rooms.

Because of the accommodation shortage, the hotels in the city are massively overpriced, with most five-star places charging more than $500 a night for a room, and hoteliers profiteering outrageously. The tent initiative, due to be announced last night by Tourism Minister Ambika Soni, comes amid reports that the building of infrastructure for the 2010 games is well behind schedule.

The accommodation shortage is embarrassing for a city that has initiated many infrastructure projects in the hope of outclassing Melbourne’s Commonwealth Games. The tented campsites will be required to meet official specifications - toilets and kitchens must be included, as well as garbage disposal and solid waste management.

To “encourage competition and fair play”, any two camping sites must be at least 500m apart.

Tented accommodation is already used in Delhi, but is usually for those displaced from demolished slums.

I hope Bernie Ecclestone is not reading this.

First Posted at Prem Panicker's on July 15, 2008.