New Delhi, Oct 15 : Will Delhi be able to green itself in time for the 2010 Commonwealth Games? With barely 11 months to go for the opening ceremony, there are no visible signs of the promised 'Green Games'.

The ground reality is that construction work is far from over at many stadiums and unless the sites are handed over to horticulturists soon, the landscape can't be greened. And that could put paid to the Delhi government's green dreams.    

"Looking at the rubble around the construction sites, I don't think Delhi can show its green face to the world as converting browns into greens in the time left is a big task," an official at the Thyagaraj Sports Complex venue told IANS, not wanting to be named as he was not authorised to speak to the media.    

The complex, which has a netball court and the training track for athletes, was supposed to be the model venue with lush green gardens, bushes and eco-friendly lighting. A look at the complex shows scattered iron bars, black fly-ash bricks and reddish stones besides hundreds of labourers racing against time.    

"The priority is to complete the construction work. Only then can we think of greening the surroundings," said the official.    

The nearby Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium complex, the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies, besides athletic events, is also nowhere near completion. The complex also has an unfinished weightlifting indoor arena.    

The location map at the main gate of the weightlifting stadium projects the volume of mandatory greenery in the area. "But there is no evidence of it as yet because construction is still on," said Sanjay Kumar, a security official at Nehru stadium.    

Horticulture experts talk of options to make the stadiums and roads look green such as growing saplings at nurseries and relocating them to the stadiums. But even that will not be easy.    

"Some of the greenery can be taken care of by nurturing saplings at nurseries. But it will not be possible for nurseries to do so for the entire city - hundreds of roads, parks and huge stadiums," Dharamvir Singh, a former deputy director of horticulture of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), told IANS.    

Singh, who retired two months ago, said: "Unless the construction work is over and they hand over the venues to the horticulture department to work on for at least six months, it will be difficult to create the desired greenery.    

"Where is the time now? The civic work is far from over, the deadlines are getting stretched over and over. The horticulture work cannot begin till the area is cleared of construction material," he told IANS.    

"Technically, work on the greenery should have started by now. Some saplings can be developed but greening all the venues may not be possible," he said, adding that there could also be roadblocks in landscaping some busy thoroughfares.    

Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit's government aims to plant 1.2 million saplings across the city by the time the Games get under way. The environment department plans to plant one million palms in pots for the Games.    

Nafisa Ali, member of a subcommittee looking at the green aspect of the CWG, is optimistic: "We are optimistic of hosting Green Games. We all are working hard and you will see the result by this time next year."    

She also said they were creating awareness against the use of polythene in the capital that litter the cityscape.    (IANS)