Procam International, promoters of the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon (ADHM), outlined arrangements that are in place for the 40,000+ participants on Sunday, 20th October including medical facilities and the route at a media conference at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Wednesday.
Present on the occasion were Hugh Jones, General Secretary AIMS and Race Director, Dr Sandeep Jain, Medical Director, Dr Eish Singhal, Deputy Commissioner of Police, New Delhi District, Bhooma Krishnan, COO, Devic Earth and Vivek Singh, Jt. MD, Procam International.
RACE DAY TIMINGS
The Airtel Delhi Half Marathon will be telecast live on Star Sports Select 1 & Star Sports Select 1HD and Star Sports 3 from 6:30 am to 10:00 am. The event will also be streamed live on Hotstar.
To avail of better running conditions for the amateur athletes, the half marathon (Start at JLNS) and the 10K (start at Jai Singh Marg, Near Bangla Sahib) races will start at 6:41 am and 5:20 am respectively. The Half Marathon Elite Men and the Half Marathon Elite Women will be flagged off at 6:40 am. The Champions with disability will be flagged off at 7:25 am followed by the Senior Citizen’s run at 7:45 am and the spirit of the city – the Great Delhi Run at 8:55 am.
RACE DAY ARRANGEMENTS
Runners are ADHM’s biggest stakeholders and Procam will continue with deploying initiatives towards making race day more memorable for all participants. Measures have been taken in the following areas – Medical Facilities, Anti-pollution measures, Suspended Particulate Management (SPM) and becoming a ‘zero to land fill’ 100% waste managed event.
Medical Arrangements by Max Healthcare
- Fully equipped base camp with 40 beds at the finish line
- Dedicated base camp for senior citizens near finish line
- 6 medical stations along the route
- 2 medical stations at the holding areas
- Trained medical personnel present at all stations to deal with any kind of emergencies
- Six advanced life support ambulances and seven paramedics on Bikes along the race route to ensure help is made available at all times.
- More than 170 healthcare providers on Race Day spread across the Medical stations and base camps.
- Spotter placed every 100m during the last 2 km of the race to identify participants who need medical attention.
Highlighting the importance of running, Dr Sandeep Jain, Medical Director, Max Healthcare, said, “Running is healthy and helps in prevention of many a lifestyle related disease. With more than 40000 entries to ADHM 19, increasing awareness towards health and well-being is appreciable. We at Max Healthcare are committed to ensure that every participant enjoys his race day thoroughly. As medical partner we have made all arrangements to deal with any kind of disease or injury which may occur during the event and we have continuously served for 8 years as medical partner for ADHM.” Dr. Sandeep Jain, Medical Director, ADHM 2019, Max healthcare, New Delhi.
Anti-Pollution Measures
The initiatives undertaken for the last few years at the Airtel Delhi Half Marathon proved their efficacy and the implementations have been continued this year.
- Patented ecologically safe technology to be used: Low power-pulsed Wifi waves to be concentrated over the course to catalyse clearance of air pollutants primarily through dry deposition.
- Ecologically safe reagents are being used. The deployment schedule is being diligently followed and dust hot spots identified for extensive spraying.
On Course
Sunday, October, 20
- 12:00 a.m. and onwards – Entire course to be washed with an ecologically safe reagent, mixed with effluent treated water to avoid the rise of dust / settled SPM.
- 2:00 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. – spraying the course with water jets. Ten live locations – spraying carried on intermittently throughout this time band.
- Dust hot spots adjoining / near proximity of the course have been pre-identified and will be sprinkled twice prior to the course being opened for runners.
In Holding Area at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium & NDMC Building at Jai Singh Marg
7:00 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. – on Friday & Saturday morning-Intermittent spraying of treated water mixed with ecologically safe reagent both inside the JLNS and near the NDMC Building at Jai Singh Marg to be able to further help precipitation of the Suspended Particulate Matter. Also, the Course spraying will happen between 11:pm to 2:00am on Saturday night.
As ascertained by multiple experts, the eco-friendly agent binds with the dust and reduces the volume of suspended particulate matter and when the water which has been sprayed on the roads starts vaporizing, it creates a safe and clean channel for runners to run.
Pure Skies for clean air – simple and effective
Devic Earth’s Pure Skies technology uses pulsed Wi-Fi to safely and effectively reduce air pollution over large areas, typically by 50-60% outdoors. Unlike ordinary Wi-Fi which broadcasts continuously to transmit data, Pure Skies transmits in the Wi-Fi range (2.4 GHz) in a very specific pulsed manner. This takes advantage of what scientists call the “dielectric effect”, which means that positive and negative charges in pollution particles are shifted in opposite directions – like a magnet. The net effect is, accelerated natural clearance of these very small pollutant particles – PM10 and PM2.5 – by causing them to agglomerate and settle out of the air. In nature, this agglomeration and settling out occurs all the time and is called “dry deposition”.
A typical Pure Skies system consists of one or more base stations and a up to a half dozen extender units, depending on the area to be covered – up to 2 km radius in cities like Delhi. For ADHM two such systems and two repeaters have been installed since 12th October and are monitoring the air quality.
With a modest electricity consumption (30W), the units work silently without the need for any further human intervention, filters or fans. The safety profile is like Wi-Fi.
Ambient Air Quality Monitoring – Oizom’s Dustroid™
Oizom Instruments Pvt. Ltd., an Ahmedabad based environmental monitoring solutions provider, is supporting Devic Earth with real time air quality monitoring data to optimize the Pure Skies systems and effectively mitigate the air pollution across the course.
100% waste Managed Race
Apart from being a globally acclaimed sporting event, the event is committed to putting the environment first. Following the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan, Procam International in the last few years, has proactively been implementing sustainable measures to mitigate waste generation in a mass participation event.
This year ADHM is ably supported by New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) who will lend their expertise to ensure all the waste on the route is efficiently managed. In addition to this, for the first time ever Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) has associated with the event to provide special metro services.
Procam is also closely working with Hasiru Dala Innovations, a social enterprise, who will supervise the different eco-friendly alternatives and ensure efficient waste management at ADHM.
ADHM Green commitments are:
- Zero Waste to Landfill
- Fast Track last-mile waste disposal.
- Use ADHM as a platform to promote awareness about waste management & better environmental practices.
NDMC assistance
- 250 NDMC sanitary workers deployed on route to ensure efficient collection and segregation
Minimise usage of Paper
- Online Entry Forms & E-Handbooks to reduce the consumption of paper used for printing forms and handbooks for applicants.
Plastic usage reduction:
- Reduction in 2,78,000 + plastic bottles across the event – Water distributed in special paper cups (with water-based coating and no plastic lining) at major locations on route and venue
- Runners encouraged to bring their own water bottles on Race day which can be refilled at water stations.
- Reusable cloth bags handed out to participants at the Expo, Bibs handed out directly without any plastic cover
- Paper bags used for event kitting, medals in cloth pouches and post-event refreshments handed out in reusable Cloth bags
Flex Upcycling
- Around 200,000 sq. feet of flex upcycled to make shelters for the homeless and floor mats from waste segregation
- 300 waste handlers & 35 supervisors, deployed in totality during race week at the venue
- Last mile waste management handled by Chintan – an Environment Research & Action group
Recycle plastic & other materials
- Residual PET bottles – separated, cleaned, crushed & recycled at certified centres
- Packing Materials: Cardboard, paper, tin, wood among others – recycled into manufacturing of same materials, reducing the use of virgin material
Greener mode of Transport:
- Special Bus services provided from various parts of the city and NCR to ferry runners to the 10 km venue at Jai Singh Marg
- Electric autos to ply for Stadium Mobility of operating crew in JLNS and emergency purposes
- DMRC has extended its support to ADHM and will begin select Metro services by 4:00 am to facilitate the ADHM participants.
Bio-Waste Management:
- Wet food waste – composted at an organic composting facility
- Sewage waste – Treated & recycled at the de-centralised NDMC Sewage treatment plant located at Sanjay Camp, Chanakyapuri
OTHER FACILITIES ON-COURSE & IN-STADIA
To keep all participants sufficiently hydrated there will be 14 Bisleri water stations along the course. This ADHM 2019, 17 Running Clubs will be manned 6 Fast&Up energy drink stations on the various race routes. Besides giving water, their role is also to motivate the runners who are struggling towards the end of their run – runners supporting runners to achieve their goals.
