Olympics-Rio takes Olympic baton as sceptics fear it will fumble

* Preparations for 2016 summer games costly, slow

* Rio struggling with infrastructure, social problems

* Carnival, World Cup, give Rio a leg-up

RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 13 (Reuters) - As the calm settled over

London's Olympic Stadium after closing ceremonies on Sunday, the

pressure was mounting in Rio de Janeiro, host of the 2016 games.

When Rio was awarded the games three years ago, it was

hailed as a rite of passage for Brazil, Latin America's biggest

country and an economy that is now the world's sixth largest.

Along with the soccer World Cup, to be held in Rio and 11

other Brazilian cities in 2014, the Olympics would show that

Brazil was finally reaching long-elusive, first-world goals.

But the exuberant celebrations which greeted the decision to

award Rio the games are giving way to trepidation in this

seaside metropolis of 6.5 million people.

Construction delays, cost overruns and overburdened

airports, roads and subway lines give locals a sense that Rio,

the first South American city to be awarded the Olympics, has a

long way to go if is to stage the event as seamlessly as London.

Part of the unease has to do with the sense that Rio,

despite its long history as a global attraction, is still

playing catch-up with the developed world.

Even after a recent economic boom in Brazil, soaring

investment because of the sporting events and an ongoing rush to

develop massive new offshore oil fields due south of the city's

beaches, Rio remains pock-marked by poor development.

"Brazil and Rio have four years to do all those things that

have not been done in 400," said Alberto Murray Neto, a Sao

Paulo attorney and past member of Brazil's Olympic committee.

The task is huge. Brazil's tourism ministry expects almost

400,000 foreign tourists for the games, in addition to hundreds

of thousands of Brazilians who themselves will add to the crush

on airports, hotels, roads and other infrastructure.

Meanwhile, costs for Olympic projects are soaring, as the

investment boom and Brazil's high taxes and labour costs, known

locally as the "Brazil Cost", inflate the price of everything

from construction cranes to beachside coconuts.

The cost of the games, critics fear, could far exceed

initial estimates of 29 billion reais ($14.4 billion).

Rio Mayor Eduardo Paes, who lands from London with the

official Olympic flag on Monday, said in a recent briefing that

an updated budget isn't possible yet.

Luis Fernandes, executive secretary of the Brazilian sports

ministry, also sidestepped the issue, telling reporters in

London on Monday: "We can only disclose the cost of the Olympics

when everything is ready.

"In this budget, there are certain aspects we have to take

note, when it comes to sporting venues that will be prepared and

constructed," he said through a translator.

"Our horizon is to base ourselves in the main, original

programme we proposed."

A LOT TO DO

So far, very little is ready. During their last visit in

June, members of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said

"the timelines for delivery are already very tight and the

amount of work to be completed is considerable."

Most troubling, said the IOC, is that Rio has yet to begin

building the Olympic Park and complex of buildings that will

host most competitions and media facilities.

Paes and other city officials remain upbeat. Leonardo

Gryner, chief of the Rio organizing committee, in London last

week said all sports facilities would be ready by 2015 with

ample leeway for testing.

Rio is no newcomer to big events.

The city's famed carnival celebrations attract more than

800,000 revelers each year. Big concerts and New Year's

festivities on Copacabana beach have attracted over one million.

Rio hosted the 2007 Pan American games, though critics

recall that event was also marred by cost overruns and a lack of

lasting improvements.

On Monday, O Globo, Rio's biggest daily newspaper, featured

a photograph of a dirty and tattered flag over a Pan American

memorial, calling it "a portrait of abandon."

Maracana, Rio's main soccer stadium, was rebuilt for the

occasion, only to be razed again to be re-constructed for the

2014 World Cup.

Rio officials tout ongoing efforts to spruce up the city

after decades of disrepair.

Until Brazil's recent boom helped begin reviving its

fortunes, Rio suffered from a lack of investment, soaring crime

rates, and the encroachment of favelas, the city's well-known

shantytowns, into its verdant hillsides.

And despite recent progress, development hurdles remain.

MOVING AROUND

Rio's airports, like those elsewhere in Brazil, are

notoriously crammed and have strained with air traffic growth.

Plans for a high-speed rail link between Rio and Sao Paulo,

Brazil's biggest city, are so far behind schedule that officials

concede it won't be running in time for the games.

The line would be a major step forward for a country with

few long-distance passenger rail links and where long bus and

car journeys, often over rickety roads, are the only alternative

to flying.

And Rio's streets, already constrained by its hills and a

wraparound waterfront, are clogged daily by traffic.

"Moving around the city is nearly impossible under normal

circumstances," said Christopher Gaffney, an urbanism professor

at Fluminense Federal University. "I don't see how they expect

to add users."

So scarce are the city's hotel rooms, even after an

additional 10,000 are built for the games, that officials plan

to use cruise liners for extra accommodation.

Hotel operators, like other industries hurt by Brazil's poor

school system, are scrambling to find skilled workers.

Consumers, meanwhile, worry about price gouging.

Brazil's government this year had to step in and force Rio

hotels to cut prices ahead of a major United Nations environment

summit. Before the June summit, hotels were charging as much as

five times the normal room rates.

Social problems also complicate planning.

New roads and rail lines being built to reach Olympic

venues, in the city's far-flung southern suburbs, will run right

through some of Rio's poorest neighborhoods.

Residents of Vila Autodromo, a favela of 500 families, are

among tens of thousands who could be evicted by construction of

Olympic projects.

While a security crackdown has reduced violence in many

neighborhoods, the improvements are mostly along the coastal

corridor where most of the Olympic-related activity will take

place, displacing the problems to formerly quiet corners.

Gryner, the Rio committee chief, said that Rio had learned

"a lot" from the London games. "We are taking that back to our

teams," he said, "we are improving our planning processes."

But critics fear only so much can be carried over from a

first-world city to one where basic public services are often

lacking.

"We are comparing a developed country with an

under-developed country, which still has a lot to do," said

Murray Neto, the former Brazilian Olympic official.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/olympics-rio-takes-olympic-baton-sceptics-fear-fumble-152755349--sector.html

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