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The Delhi state government has sought heavy federal funding to complete projects for the 2010 Commonwealth Games, raising fears the economic meltdown could bite into the event.

The state government in the Indian capital, due to stage the games from Oct 3-14 next year, has said it had run out of extra funds to keep infrastructure work going.

"The government has no extra funds to spend next fiscal," Delhi state finance minister A.K. Walia told the Times of India on Thursday.

The local administration has sought around 50 billion rupees ($1.02 billion) from the federal government to finish various Games-related work taken up by public bodies, the paper said.

"Of the total money required, the state has sought rupees 500 crore (5 billion rupees) this year for the games and about rupees 2,000 crore (20 billion rupees) each for the next two fiscals," Walia told the paper.

He blamed a sharp revenue dip caused mainly by a decline in duty collection, as a result of a real estate value slump caused by the economic meltdown.

The event's organising committee chairman Suresh Kalmadi said a fortnight ago that the Games would overshoot its budget due to higher construction costs.

However, he had expressed confidence the various stadiums would be completed well before the Games.

The event, seen as a big advertisement for India's rapid economic growth, has been dogged by slow progress of work as well as a court petition over the location of the athletes' village.

Government figures in December estimated expenditure for the games at around 79 billion rupees ($1.6 billion).

It includes money needed for infrastructure and the sum spent on the 2008 Commonwealth Youth Games.

Several private builders -- some of them had taken up hotel projects -- were in trouble and the company building the Games village has sought government assistance to complete the project, the CNN-IBN channel reported on its website.

(Source: Reuters)