Durban's bid book for the 2022 Commonwealth Games - 600 pages long and 30cm thick - is on its way to London ahead of the official submission on Monday.

A copy of the book will be handed to the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) tomorrow morning so they can read through it before the ceremony at Mansion House in the English capital at noon, said the bid committee chief executive, Tubby Reddy, who flew out last night.

The delegation, led by Sport Minister Fikile Mbalula, Durban mayor James Nxumalo, bid committee chairman Mark Alexander and Reddy, will make a 20-minute presentation on Monday. The projected cost of the Games would remain secret until the bid book becomes a public document on Monday, Reddy said.

But he added it was considerably cheaper than the R10-billion price tag that had been speculated previously.

"We've sold this to national government as an affordable Games," said Reddy, pointing out that most of the venues would require only upgrades.

Only two - the athletes village and the shooting range - would have to be built from scratch. Most of the 17 sports will be staged within a 2.5km radius around Moses Mabhida Stadium.

Durban's bid will be the only one submitted on Monday after Edmonton in Canada pulled out because of money problems. But Reddy warned that this did not guarantee Durban would get the nod when the CGF general assembly voted on September 2.

"We don't have a competitor, we're competing against ourselves. But I do believe we have a quality bid. Even if we had opposition we would have had a good case to win the bid."

Africa has never hosted the Commonwealth Games.