INQUIRER Sports

NEW DELHI-- India will not bid for the Olympics in the near future even if it organizes a successful Commonwealth Games next year, sports minister Manohar Singh Gill said on Wednesday.

Gill, speaking in parliament during a discussion on the New Delhi Commonwealth Games, said he was not in favour of the country looking further ahead towards hosting the Olympics.

"Some of my colleagues (MPs) said casually that we should be bidding for Olympics. I'm not sure India should be," Gill said.

"Look at the poverty in this country, look at our infrastructure. China has spent 50 billion dollars for Olympics. Are you ready to spend that amount?"

Gill stressed this was not just his personal view. "It's policy," he said.

Indian sports officials have often spoken of wanting to bid for the Olympics as early as in 2020 and see a successful staging of the Commonwealth Games as the first step in that direction.

Indian organizers and Commonwealth Games chiefs have tried to patch over differences after acrimony about New Delhi's readiness to host the 2010 event, India's biggest multi-sport event since the Asian Games in 1982.

Gill, a former federal chief election commissioner, assured MPs the infrastructure for the October 3-14 Commonwealth Games would be ready.

"The stadia will be completed in time," he said. "The government is investing substantial amount of money for the upgradation of various stadia to be used for the Games.

"These stadia will become state-of-the-art venues of international standards.

"The government of India and the organizing committee are fully committed to completing all preparations for the Games in good time," said Gill.

The Commonwealth Games will feature 71 nations and territories from the former British empire.

With a reported bill of about two billion dollars, Delhi 2010 will outstrip the 1.1-billion-dollar cost of the 2006 event in Melbourne to be the most expensive Commonwealth Games in history.