India to host first Formula One race in 2010, official says

NEW DELHI
(AP) —

India
will hold its first Formula One race in 2010, the head of the Indian Olympic
Association said Monday.

“Formula
One’s architects visited

New Delhi
and saw several sites in the National Capital Region. They did an aerial survey
and selected two sites – in Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh and Sohna in
Haryana,” IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi told reporters.

Both areas
are suburbs of
New Delhi and it’s been left to

India to choose
between the two shortlisted venues, he said.

Kalmadi
said he met with Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone in

London last week to discuss the matter in
detail.

“We’re
happy to say that the first race has been finalized for 2010,” Kalmadi
said.

Formula
One handed

India
two contracts – one a race promotion contract and the second a circuit rights
agreement, Kalmadi said.

Earlier
this year Kalmadi said F1 may come to the country by 2009.

The

New Delhi area does not
currently have a motor racing track, but Kalmadi said the IOA, together with
the government, would build one. In the past he ruled out a street race.

While F1
is not an Olympic event, the IOA is involved as part of its attempt to bring as
many major sporting events as possible to New

Delhi ahead of the city’s staging of the 2010
Commonwealth Games.

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