Bernie Ecclestone, the British chief executive of Formula One Racing, is close to striking a deal with a regional government in India to build a racing circuit there, according to a published report.
The bespectacled billionaire said he had found the ideal locale and that it would be three years before work on a new track was completed.
News of Ecclestone's India plans had started doing the rounds in 2003, and they seem sensible. Motor racing is one of the most popular sports among urban audiences after cricket, said Nazir Hoosein, the president of the Motorsports Association of India. Clubs and pubs in cities often screen racing events.
Hoosein added that while Indian cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad may have had space on the outskirts for a track, problem lay in arranging the infrastructure. A Formula One event would involve gigantic amounts of equipment coming into the country in a short span of time, and most airports would be ill-equipped to deal with that.
But Hoosein was optimistic about Ecclestone's 2010 timeline. "Building a circuit is not a problem," he told Forbes.com. "We have civil engineers capable of this sort of expertise. And China did it in a year-and-a-half, so maybe India can do it in three years,
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