Formula 4 night street race in Chennai | Organisers say, similar race boosted Hyderabad’s economy

Since the street race has been tentatively postponed by a week, the court decided to hear three PILs filed against the event on December 11

The 3.7 km street race circuit around the Island Grounds covering Flag Staff Road, Kamarajar Salai, Swami Sivanandha Road and Anna Salai | Photo Credit: The Hindu Graphics

Organisers of the proposed Formula 4 night street race in Chennai have submitted before the Madras High Court that India’s first-ever Formula E race held at Hyderabad in February this year, in collaboration with the Telangana government, had boosted the city’s economy.

Racing Promotions Private Limited (RPPL) filed copies of a couple of news reports before a Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq on Wednesday, stating that Hyderabad’s economy was uplifted by $83.7 million, according to a study conducted by Nielsen Sports Analysis. The reports were filed after the Bench had on Friday sought a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) and the private motor sports company for conducting the Formula 4 Indian Championship and Indian Racing League (IRL) in Chennai.

Accordingly, Senior Counsel P.R. Raman, representing RPPL, submitted the MoU that stated that his client would spend a total of ₹202 crore, including the expenditure for patented debris fence panel (₹48 crore), circuit electronic system (₹34 crore), TechPro barrier (₹20 crore) and Formula 4 cars (₹20 crore). Besides, it would also bear the expenditure for race operations (₹10 crore), event management (₹10 crore), marketing (₹10 crore), IRL cars (₹10 crore), grand stands (₹8 crore), racing festival miscellaneous cost (₹8 crore), other miscellaneous costs (₹8 crore), tyre barrier (₹6 crore), kerbs (₹4 crore) and hospitality (₹4 crore).

The SDAT, on its part, had committed to spend ₹42 crore this year, including ₹30 crore for obtaining the licence and racing permit for the host city, pit building, concrete blocks and circuit lighting system; ₹6 crore for roads and ₹6 crore for miscellaneous expenses such as road beautification and painting.

Though the judges had called for the MoU to find out if there was any revenue-sharing model with the State government too, getting a share of the income to be derived through sponsorships, sale of tickets and broadcasting rights, the memorandum did not contain any such details.

However, RPPL placed the news reports to point out that over 31,000 people had attended the Hyderabad Formula E race and a majority (59%) of them had come from outside the city, thereby bringing in significant inward investment into the local economy, and that the event was telecast live in over 150 countries.

Advocate General R. Shunmugasundaram told the Division Bench that the Formula 4 championship as well as IRL originally scheduled to be held in Chennai on December 9 and 10 had now been postponed tentatively to December 16 and 17 due to rain-related relief works being carried out in the city.

The A-G further said that 80% of the works required for the conduct of the race on the Madras Street Race Circuit being created on Flag Staff Road, a part of Kamarajar Road passing through Napier Bridge, Sivanandam Salai and a part of Anna Salai had been completed, and sale of tickets too had commenced.

Taking note of the postponement of the race, the judges decided to hear on December 11 three public interest litigation petitions filed against conduct of the race on public roads and by spending public money.