While presenting the union budget last year, Union Finance Minister P Chidambram had asked the agencies associated with the organization of the 2010 Commonwealth Games to make them a memorable event. He was quite upbeat about the Games during the 2007-2008 budget. For the record, he said, ‘‘India bid for and won for the city of Delhi the Commonwealth Games 2010. We owe it to our people to make the Commonwealth Games an equally memorable event.’’

One year down the line, there was some anxiety in his tone while presenting the 2008-2009 budget. He sent out a stern message to those very agencies to go by the strict timelines as the mega event was just 947 days away. He increased the allocation for games in 2008-2909 budget from last year’s Rs 500 croer to Rs. 624 crore.

The Finance Minister referred to the reports indicating that the projects for the Games were being delayed. There is a raging controversy between the environmentalists and the government over the construction of the Games Village on the Yamuna riverbed. It has been pointed out that the executing agencies have lost their direction. Referring the growing concern in the government over the delay in meeting the targets, the Finance Minister said, ‘‘The Commonwealth Games are only 947 days away. I would urge the authorities to adhere to the strict timelines and quality standards.’’

The latest flashpoint in the implementation of the project was the resignation tendered by the Delhi Urban Arts Commission panel led by Charles Correa. His resignation came as fallout of the insinuations made by the union urban development ministry and the Delhi government that the Commission was creating hurdles in the implementation of the projects.

On the issue of timelines raised by Chidambaram on Friday, Delhi government’s chief secretary Rakesh Mehta said, ‘‘Timelines have been set and we have to adhere to them for all our projects. The Games begin on October 3, 2010, and some of our projects have to be completed by December 2009 while other facilities have to be delivered latest by June 2010. There is no question of not meeting these timelines.’’

Despite the concern shown by the country’s finance minister about the slow pace of progress, two crucial infrastructure projects for the Games, namely, East-West corridor and an alternative route in place of the controversial tunnel road project — have yet to be started.