Is the wait finally over ?

While I was waiting eagerly for getting back to the Net-Land, I came across the story in one of the National Daily stating that our good ol’ Bernie has said in an interview regarding holding the first Indian Grand Prix in year 2010. Digging a bit deeper and after ending up buying all the different tabloids that were available, the story unfolds in following manner:

1. Apparently Spyker have entered in an agreement with one of the state government to develop F1 Circuit and F1 based theme park.
2. They have signed a MoU, for Spyker being given 500 acres of land, with an option to buy more land if need arise.
3. The approx cost of the project is in the region of $500 Million.
4. The “State Government” in question here is of Haryana and the development will take place near NOIDA [that's near to the New Delhi, the national capital].

As per the tabloid, this is what Bernie was referring to when he said he was ‘far down the line’ in negotiations with a regional government. And naturally my heart leapt with joy reading the news. Though no official announcement has been made till now.

Infact this is not the first time that there has been talks of Indian Grand Prix, earlier there were talks of building a GP circuit near Calcutta [around 1998] but that was put to hold because government came out with No Tobacco Advertisement policy. After that there were talks of building one near Hyderabad, this was went-down-the-drain because Hyderabad does not have a International Airport neither the infrastructure to accommodate the whole Formula-1 Circus, and also because the-then Chief Minister Mr Naidu lost the state elections.

After that there have been many roumers of numerous state governments showing interest in building the F1 Circuit [including Mumbai], but this is the first time that something is written with such authority in a National Daily. So is the wait for thousands of F1 Fans in India finally over ? I really hope so.

Related Article:

• Indian Grand Prix? « Formula 1 Blog[External]

TAGS: Formula 1 . F1 . India . Spyker . Bernie Ecclestone . Circuits