The Tribune

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) -- IOC officials visited the construction site of the Olympic Village for the 2016 Games on Tuesday, the second day of an inspection tour to Rio de Janeiro. Members of the IOC's coordination commission also checked on work being done to improve the city's transportation system, inaugurating a rapid transit bus line and visiting the construction of a subway station. Coordination commission leader Nawal El Moutawakel and IOC executive director Gilbert Felli will stay in Rio through Wednesday along with another 16 officials as part of planned visits to check the progress of preparations for the 2016 Olympics. "At the same time that a lot of work has been done since the last visit by the coordination commission in June 2011, other important goals still need to be reached in the following months," El Moutawakel said in a statement Monday. "This meeting is an important step in our joint journey for 2016." The commission members will give a report on their findings on Wednesday. It is the IOC's third full inspection visit to Rio since the city was picked in 2009 to host the games. The coordination commission will start making two visits per year from 2012. "Since the commission's last visit we made progress in several areas," Rio 2016 Olympic committee president Carlos Nuzman said. "Today, Rio citizens are already taking advantage of the impressive transformation taking place in the city, as envisioned by Rio 2016." The Olympic Village will include 31 buildings with a capacity to host nearly 18,000 people at the Barra da Tijuca neighborhood, which will host most of the Olympic venues including the International Broadcast Center. Organizers say the village, which is being built privately and will be sold to the public after the games, is located within 25 minutes of where most of the athletes will compete and practice during the Olympics. Moutawakel symbolically kick-started a new construction phase at the village, pressing the button of a machine driving the site's first pile into the ground.