Daily Times

LAHORE: The Olympic Council of Asia is delighted to see that construction work on venues for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, in 2022 has resumed. Work was halted for several weeks in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang province in eastern China, due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. But the official website of the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee reports that venues within the city and in other areas, notably the cycling velodrome in Chun’an County, are busy again with construction work. The Director General of the Olympic Council of Asia, Husain Al-Musallam, said: “This is very good news coming out of China and it highlights the effectiveness of the measures to contain and prevent the coronavirus in the city of Hangzhou and the province of Zhejiang. We sincerely hope that life is steadily returning to normal for the people and that they can go about their every-day work like before. We have full confidence and trust in the Chinese Olympic Committee and the Hangzhou Asian Games Organising Committee that they are making the safety of the people their top priority. The OCA supports the decisions of the COC and HAGOC and will continue to work closely with them in the coming weeks and months.” The 19th Asian Games will be the third Asiad to be held in China following Beijing 1990 and Guangzhou 2010 and are due to take place from September 10-25, 2022.

Organising committee HAGOC reports that the decision to resume construction work on the velodrome in Chun’an County was taken on February 14 and that workers must undergo temperature and health checks on a daily basis before entering the site. Construction officials are confident that the velodrome will be completed on schedule by the end of 2021. The entire project at Chun’an County covers 32,500 square metres and includes the velodrome, five other venues and villages for athletes, media and technical officials. On February 27, the organising committee said that construction had resumed on 28 of the 40 projects being built for the Hangzhou Asian Games.