Ranchi, July 15: A kilometre-long arterial link between the National Games Village and NH-33, built at a cost of Rs 2.17 crore in 2008-09, will now require more than double the amount for reconstruction, thanks to substandard quality of building material and administrative apathy.

Just a subdued spell of monsoon has already rendered the four-lane road non-motorable, with cracks and craters scarring its surface and putting a serious question mark on its viability during the 34th National Games, scheduled after the October Commonwealth sporting extravaganza.

Gauging the importance of the one-kilometre stretch from Khelgaon — as the Games village is better known as — to NH-33 near Booty More, the Ranchi division of the state road construction department has drawn up a Rs 5-crore revamp plan and forwarded it to its headquarters.

“We had sent a proposal six months ago when an elected government was in place, but things did not move at a desired pace. So, we have reworked the proposal, now worth Rs 5 crore, and are waiting for approval,” Ranchi road division executive engineer Umesh Prasad Sinha told The Telegraph.

Experts, however, remain sceptical on whether renewed construction efforts will be able to honour the Games deadline.

In 2008-09, the then state administration spent Rs 2.17 crore to build the road, which soon developed cracks. A departmental inquiry led to the suspension of six engineers in November 2009, during the first stint of President’s rule under former governor K. Sankaranarayanan. FIRs were lodged against the suspended engineers and contractor Highway Hydel.

On his part, road construction secretary N.N. Sinha set up a three-member committee of technical experts who were entrusted to probe and verify the quality of the road, funded by the sports department and executed by the road construction department, since the Games was scheduled for November.

The committee comprised chief engineer of the national highway wing, road construction department, Murari Bhagat, then chief engineer of Central Design Organisation (CDO) Ram Naresh Raman and superintending engineer of the Ranchi national highway wing Tripurari Shankar Prasad.

After a series of inspections, the experts concluded that a drive on the arterial road was anything but pleasant. They reported subsidence at several spots, warned of possible cave-ins and suggested reconstruction of the road with a compressed sand base topped with bitumen carpet.

Nine months since then, no steps were taken to reconstruct the road. Besides, there is no mechanism to drain out water and the sodden link — an offshoot of NH-33 (Ranchi-Hazaribagh road) that also connects the Games village with Tatisilway — remains an excuse for a metalled road.