Two Indian cities are going head-to-head in their battle to host the first F1 race in the country – and both say they have done their bit to ensure the F1 circus comes to their town.
Two Indian cities are going head-to-head in their battle to host the first Formula One race in the country – and both say they have done their bit to ensure the F1 circus comes to their town.
The cities of Mumbai and Hyderabad have entered into a clash to host an Indian F1 event and both cities say it will be theirs.
According to reports, chief minister of Hyderabad, Chandrababu Naidu, is confident that the race will be in his town, having apparently secured the valuable signature of Bernie Ecclestone on a contract.
“F1 is not going to Mumbai,” asserted Naidu, claiming that the Andhra Pradesh project in Hyderabad was well on course to be completed ahead of its rivals in Karnataka and Maharashtra.
After two rounds of talks in London with Eccelstone and those high up in Formula One, the Hyderabad delegation was confident that they would be hosting the Indian F1 in 2007.
However this illusion was shattered when the Mumbai team welcomed a delegation to its project and the Maharashtra chief minister, Sushil Kumar Shinde, is due to meet F1 representatives again soon.
“They have informed us that they will be coming for discussions with me,” Shinde was quoted as saying, “Earlier plans [were to] conduct the race near Hyderabad, but now they want it to be shifted to Mumbai.”
The Hyderabad track alone is estimated to be priced at several billion rand, while the accompanying infrastructure like hotels, hospitals, amusement parks and road network would cost another five billion.
Apparently, the government is planning to tie the development in with the building of an international airport nearby, which would help to fulfil one of the conditions laid down by Ecclestone that the host city has to have the ability to transport the F1 entourage right to the circuit.
