Tourism secretary Sujit Banerjee said, "We have written to the Army asking them if arrangements can be made in cantonment areas to accommodate camps."

So far, the government has been barely able to manage about 27,000 rooms against a target of 30,000. According to recent estimates, DDA has promised 2,101 rooms while Haryana has been able to commit 5,417 rooms. Ghaziabad and Greater Noida have succeeded in creating 1,303 and 500 rooms respectively.

There are 3,369 rooms that could be ready for the Games but are likely to miss the deadline. Of these, 1,837 belong to DDA, 1,195 to Haryana and about 337 rooms in UP that are not confirmed but are in the `likely' category.

The tourism ministry is, however, banking heavily on 15,000 rooms through various guesthouses in Delhi and 3,000 bed and breakfast establishments.

The ministry is working with civic agencies and police to spruce up guesthouses in Paharganj and adjoining areas. Issues such as supply of water, power, hygienic conditions and security of tourists are high on the agenda. The government has already conducted one round of inspections and will hold another in April-end.

The administration had estimated a lakh visitors in Delhi for the Games in 2010 but sources in the ministry said the revised estimates are likely to be much lower. "Our tourist arrivals was going great guns till the latter half of 2008. The Mumbai terror attacks and economic downturn have halted the rapid annual growth of 14%. Now we estimate that there will be fewer visitors in 2010," a senior official said.