The Organising Committee (OC) of the Commonwealth Games 2018 Candidate City Hambantota is planning to unveil the model of its Games City today, Saturday March 19, 2011. The model, which has been prepared by a talented Sri Lankan design team, consists of twenty key venues and facilities including an athletics stadium, an aquatic centre, a multi-sports complex, a velodrome stadium and a hockey stadium. The recently built Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium also serves as a key venue of this city plan and all other sites including the Games Village are to be constructed around this spectacular stadium, a statement said.
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The guest of honour at this ceremonial event will be Mike Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF). He will participate at the event at the invitation of Mahindananda Aluthgamage, Co-Chairman of the OC and Minister of Sports; Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Co-Chairman of the OC and Governor, Central Bank of Sri Lanka. Minister Dilan Perera, MP Namal Rajapaksa, Udaya Seneviratne, Secretary, Ministry of Sports, Hemasiri Fernando, President, Common-wealth Games Associa-tion Sri Lanka, and Nalin Attygalle, CEO, CWG Hambant-ota 2018 (Pvt) Ltd. will also attend the function which is expected to be attended by Business Leaders, Sports Leaders and Media persons.
Mike Hooper is scheduled to arrive today (19) and during his stay in Sri Lanka, he will visit the proposed games city, Hambantota. In addition, he is scheduled to visit a few other ongoing infrastructure development projects in Sri Lanka including the Hambantota Port and Mattala Airport. The key purpose of the CEO’s visit to Sri Lanka will be to understand the steps being taken by Hambantota as a Candidate City for the Commonwealth Games in 2018 and to assess the commitment and preparedness of the city towards hosting the games. By displaying the progress of ongoing developments and by explaining as to how set deadlines have been met, the OC is confident that CGF would be convinced of the ability of Sri Lanka to construct the proposed venues in time for the commonwealth games in 2018, in the event the bid is won by the City of Hambantota.
In the meantime, the OC is in the process of preparing an attractive bid document under the 15 stipulated themes and the bid book is due to be submitted to the CGF on 11th May 2011. In addition to submitting the bid book, the OC will also convey the city’s commitment to host the games, while showcasing the country’s heritage, beauty and potential.
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