Guwahati, Feb. 3: Participants, including athletes and officials, arrived in the city today to a chaotic reception, courtesy poor co-ordination in the protocol wing of the organising committee.

While some found themselves stranded at the airport and hotel gates for hours, others had to roam around the city in search of designated accommodation, thanks to a lack of knowledge about the city on the part of volunteers and escort vehicles deployed with the team buses.

Teams from all the eight participating nations arrived here today.

It was a test of patience and endurance for the Bangladesh contingent, which had to wait at the airport for nearly two hours before being ferried to their hotels at Ganeshguri and Hatigaon in the city.

All the contingents were received at a booth set up at Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport here by volunteers offering flowers and accreditation cards. However, outside there were hardly anyone to guide them to their hotels and other accommodation, alleged team officials from Bangladesh.

The Indian men and women's hockey team, too, met with a similar fate. They, too, had to wait in their bus for over an hour at the gate of the Don Bosco Institute Guesthouse, where their accommodation was previously arranged.

However, there were no rooms available so they had to be shifted to Royal Group of Insitutions Guesthouse with the help of the Assam Hockey Association (AHA). "The contingent comprising Olympians Dibakar Ram and Gurbaj Singh arrived and found that the Don Bosco Institute Guesthouse rooms were already occupied. There was no arrangement for lunch. We had to arrange for their lunch and later shifted them to the Royal Group of Institutions Guesthouse," AHA secretary Tapan Das said.

Other teams and contingents were mistakenly led to wrong destinations. They were "rescued" by mediapersons who showed them the way to their hotels.

Sources in the SAG organising commitee alleged that lack of coordination by the protocol wing, led by Indian Olympic Association office-bearer R.K. Sacheti, with other wings that had led to the hitches.

The protocol wing had earlier compromised on the security of visiting athletes. Sources said the security wing had alleged that the protocol wing had not informed the security agencies about the arrival of a section of Maldives athletes on Monday.

Over 2,000 volunteers and 11,000 security personnel are engaged for the smooth conduct of the Games.