As London continues preparations for the 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, the city marked the seven-year countdown to the Opening Ceremony, and prepared to sell the first wave of lottery tickets designed to fund the games.
"Seven years from today we will be just a few hours away from welcoming the world to the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games," said London 2012 Chairman Sebastian Coe.
One of the ways the anniversary is being celebrated is the introduction of a new lottery game, entitled "Go for Gold". The scratch-off ticket will go on sale July 28, the first of several lottery games to raise money for the Olympics.
Camelot Group, the operator of the national lottery, says lottery funding will contribute up to 1.5 billion pounds towards the cost of the 2012 Olympics. Of that total, 750 million is estimated to come from dedicated lottery games.
Construction on the venues for 2012, including the Aquatics Centre in east London's Lower Lea Valley, has already began with the help of the London Development Agency. The Centre will be part of the new Olympic Park, a complex that organizers hope will transform the Lea Valley area into an environmental urban showpiece.
"Visitors converging on the Olympic Park for the Opening Ceremony by public transport, cycling or walking will enter into a new landscape of green parkland and clean waterways providing a lush backdrop for modern, energy efficient sports stadia just six kilometers from central London," Coe said.
The city also plans to upgrade its transportation system with a 17 billion GBP investment from the government. The money will go towards the creation of a new shuttle service called the Olympic Javelin, which will ferry passengers at Games time from central London to the Olympic Park in just seven minutes.
More on the 2012 London Olympics at Around the Rings.Com, for subscribers only.
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