New Delhi: The Queen’s Baton Relay for the Commonwealth Games (CWG) later this year arrived in India at the Wagah border from Pakistan on Friday.
CWG organizing committee head Suresh Kalmadi received it from his Pakistani counterpart Lt Gen. Syed Arif Hassan on Friday morning at the international boundary in Punjab.
Punjab Chief Minister Prakash Singh Badal, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Commonwealth Games Federation chief Michael Fennell, and other sportspersons were present at the event.
The relay will proceed to Jalandhar, Phillaur and then Ludhiana in Punjab, before being put for public display at Patiala on Saturday.
On Sunday, the relay will move to Hoshiarpur and Pathankot and on Monday, it will be handed over to the state and Olympics authorities of Jammu and Kashmir.
The baton will travel across India, transversing a distance of over 20,000 km, before finally reaching New Delhi on September 30.
The Queen's Baton relay is a torch race symbolising the unity and shared ideals of the Commonwealth of nations and carries a message from the head of the Commonwealth of Nations, currently Queen Elizabeth II of the UK. The baton has the ability to capture images and sound as it travels throughout the nations of the Commonwealth. With Global Positioning System (GPS) technology, it can be tracked through exact location.