Ranchi: The construction company tasked with the ambitious project of installation of a 33-feet bronze statue of Swami Vivekananda on an islet in Ranchi Lake was left pleading for extra time on the very day the project should have been complete.

The islet hosting the statue and connected via a bridge should have been complete on Thursday.

Instead, an official of Urmila RCP Projects Limited, the company which bagged the tender, cited several reasons for the skipped deadline.

"We were supposed to complete the work today (Thursday) but we could not do due to several reasons like frequent bouts of rain and festivals which delayed work. This year we faced a peculiar problem when almost half of our trained labourers left for their home during festival. We are approaching the (tourism) department for extension of the deadline," the official said.

Asked how much time they need, the official replied, "Six months at least. We may need up to a year."

The Rs 13-crore project was inaugurated in January last year and Urmila RCP started work by mid-May.

According to the project estimate, a total of 141 underground piles were to be constructed to hold the 200-metre bridge. But only half of it has been done so far. "As the lake remained mostly flooded for the last two years, we faced problems in piling work," the official said.

The bronze statue of Swami Vivekananda will be procured by the tourism department. Renowned sculptor and architect Anil R. Sutar has been roped in to design the statue.

"The renovation of the 52-acre British-era water body and installation of the statue has been planned to boost tourism and reconnect youth with their glorious past," an RMC official said. The lake is under the jurisdiction of the local civic body.

"RMC will construct 1702 metres of pathway around the lake for which work has started. We too are waiting for early completion of the work," said RMC executive engineer Uma Shankar Ram.