Ranchi, July 24: Chief minister Raghubar Das today gave his formal consent to bid for hosting the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship 2017, making Jharkhand India's sole representative in the bidding process that's likely to see several Asian countries take part.

Jharkhand, which was given two options by Athletics Federation of India (AFI) - the 22nd Asian Athletics Championship or the 2nd Asian Youth Athletics Championship, both scheduled for 2017 - chose to bid for the first.

The AFI had asked the state, via the Jharkhand Athletics Association (JAA), to give its consent for bidding latest by August 15. Bidding, under the aegis of Asian Athletics Association (AAA), will be held in September first week.

Sports minister Amar Kumar Bauri, who confirmed the chief minister's approval, said, "My department will now issue a letter of consent empowering the AFI to bid on our behalf."

JAA president Madhukant Pathak elaborated on the process at hand.

"A draft worth Rs 13 lakh and the state government's undertaking for hosting the event, along with details of how we intend to conduct the games, our facilities, etc, need to be given," he said.

"We are more than hopeful of winning the bid... India, which means Jharkhand, has an edge over others (Asian countries) due to the novelty factor of the venue.

"If we win the bid, we'll have to set up a fully functional office, an organising committee to be headed by the chief minister and so on," he said.

The 21st Asian Athletics Championship was held in June 2015 in Wuhan, the capital of China's Hubei province. Some 45 Asian countries had taken part in the meet.