Andhra F-1 plan hits roadblock

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's dreams of bringing the Formula One car racing to the city is unlikely to see the light of the day -- at least for the next few years -- if the priorities of the new Congress government are any indication.

Naidu's pet project has hit a road block after new Chief Minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy made it clear, during a reply to the motion of thanks on Governor's address in the Assembly, that the government had urgent and serious issues to address rather than spending a fortune on the racing expedition.

"We are not in a position to afford Rs 10,000 crore for a racing expedition, which is an annual feature, while our priorities are different and we have urgent and serious issues to address," Reddy said.

The previous TDP government, after conducting the Asian Grand Prix athletics meets, National Games and the Afro-Asian Games, had taken up F-1 Racing as one of the prime projects.

But after three rounds of talks between the F-1 team and state officials, the project was kept pending following the elections, even as the Maharashtra government announced its willingness to host the racing event.

State officials had then quickly reacted stating that the agreement had a "lock-in period" during which the F1 team cannot negotiate with any other party without the consent of the Andhra Pradesh government.

The project received the first jolt when new Chief Minister Reddy announced after the first Cabinet meeting that all decisions taken by the TDP government in the last year would be reviewed.

"The present status of the project is that the file is with chief minister for review. It all depends on the decision he takes," an official said but he added "the lock-in period is still valid and F-1 team cannot negotiate with others without our consent".

The official, however, would not say when the lock-in period will expire. Naidu, in an serious attempt to bring in the prestigious racing event to the city, had set up a team to negotiate with the F-1 bosses.

Naidu himself visited Milan, Italy in September last year alongwith his negotiating team and held discussion with F-1 chief Bernie Ecclestone and other oganisers about his dream project -- the staging of the Indian leg at Hyderabad.

Six hundred acres of land near Gopannapalli, on the outskirts of the city, was earmarked for the project, which was estimated to cost about Rs 600 crore and generate 75,000 jobs besides promoting tourism and hotel industry.

F-1 team too visited the state capital and held talks with the state event management authorities. Chairman of State Industrial Infrastructure Authority, PV Rao was heading the negotiations on behalf of the state government.

The two teams had at least three rounds of talks and even chalked out the television rights, media and publicity affairs in the third round after which the state Assembly was dissolved.But with the new government making its intentions clear, the F-1 project, no doubt, has hit a roadblock.