Guwahati, April 3: With only a few weeks to go before the monsoon arrives, the National Games Secretariat (NGS) is accelerating development of infrastructure at Charon Beel in Morigaon district. Water sports disciplines for the 33rd National Games, proposed to be held from October 5 to 14, will be organised at Charon Beel.

Such infrastructure development includes plans for dredging a portion of the Morigaon beel. The process will have to be completed before the rainy season, when the lake gets flooded. The venue was finalised on November 3 last year, during which venues for the Games were distributed over two different districts.

The resolution to expedite infrastructure development was adopted at a meeting of a panel constituted with representatives from the NGS, the Assam Olympic Association, the Morigaon district administration and water sports bodies in the state at the NGS on Wednesday.

Sources said the meeting resolved that dredging and partial desiltation should be started as soon as possible in order to preclude possible interruptions caused by the rains and floods. The lake is highly prone to floods.

Apart from dredging, infrastructure development includes construction of jetties, start towers, hostels and other buildings. In the rainy season, this would entail difficulties.

The venue, 55 km from here, was chosen after ruling out two sites proposed earlier, at Deepor Beel and Sualkuchi on the Brahmaputra?s backstream near here.

Ironically, the official website for the National Games ? www.33rdnationalgames.nic.in ? still lists Deepor Beel as the venue for rowing, canoeing and kayaking events.

The NGS had fixed the venue at Charon Beel more than three months before the website was launched on February 20.

The website, developed by the NGS with the help of National Informatics Centre technical director Diganta Barman, who is its software consultant, confuses browsers by mentioning Charon Beel in the event-wise list of venues.