New Delhi, Aug 13 (IANS): The under-construction Sports Injury Centre at Delhi's Safdarjung Hospital will be completed by Aug 31 and the equipment installed in September, well before the Commonwealth Games start, a health ministry official said Friday.

"The centre is in advanced stage of completion and the installation of equipment will start soon after," Joint Secretary Vineet Chaudhary said.

"We will have plenty of time from Sep 1 till the Games start in October. The equipment will be set up by then," he said.

Advance equipment worth Rs.6 crore has already been purchased through public-private partnership and are presently kept at the Safdarjung hospital.

"Most of high-end equipment have not been procured by government... they have been sourced through PPP (public-private partnership). We have not spent a penny on it," Chaudhary said.

He added that buying the equipment before-hand was necessary as it was sophisticated equipment "which cannot be bought off-the-shelf and has to be ordered".

The project, which has as many as six private partners involved, will be run on a revenue-sharing basis.

"We are providing them space. They will install the equipment and operate it on revenue sharing basis," he said.

The project, which has a total cost of Rs.70 crore, including Rs.32 crore for the construction of the building.

Chaudhry said the centre will be the first of its kind not only in India but in the whole of south Asia. "The demand for a sports injury centre and sports medicine came up in the 1990s. It was under consideration since 1997," he said.

"The Planning Commission under the 11th Plan had provision for setting up sports medicine and sports injury centre and that is where this idea was conceived," he said, adding that the Commonwealth Games "helped in expediting the work".