Race Hits Bumpy Road

The country's first street circuit around the Hussainsagar Lake left the sport buffs disappointed. The efforts made by the HMDA and the organisers of the Indian Racing League failed to achieve the target and the event closed as junior championship.

In all about five accidents took place resulting in minor injuries to few drivers including a woman driver. An accident was averted on Saturday when a branch of a tree fell on one of the cars during the race near Prasad's IMAX during the trial run and the driver lost control for few seconds. Two race cars crashed into each other on NTR Marg turning on Sunday. Both cars suffered damage.

This sports event was being held for the first time and the young generation was on cloud nine and eager to watch the cars vroom. They did not hesitate to buy tickets spending Rs 6,000 to 12,000 but the overaction on the part of the city police left many unhappy as police did not allowed inside the gallery.

Even media which had valid passes issued by the authorities were not recognised. This is no way to handle such events. Such events are meant for the public to see and enjoy but the focus during such events is on the VVIPs and the not the ticket and pass holders. All concerned authorities need to conduct mock exercises of public handling during such events and ensure that the general public goes back home praising the police and the administration.

Formula E is more than just a race on the track. It has a higher purpose. It is meant to test new technologies, drive development to the production line and put more electric cars on the road so that it can help in addressing the devastating effects of air pollution. As of now there are several apprehensions about electric vehicles as good number of them had caught fire.

With this event, Hyderabad was to join the prestigious list of E-Prix host cities such as New York, London, Berlin, Seoul, Monaco, and Rome.

Experts say that it takes at least two to three months to lay the track but here the road was re-carpeted and not laid specially for the purpose of racing. When a similar racing event took place at Merdeka Square of central Jakarta the track was built from the scratch. In this case it is said that there was very little space for the cars even to overtake. Even in terms of safety measures, international standards were not followed the racers feel. The government however claimed that efforts have been on for last couple of months to prepare the 2.7 km circuit around Hussainsagar, Necklace road as per the standards laid down by FIA and FE both in terms of quality of tracks which are suitable for a world championship and that rigorous safety standards were followed.

But since the experience of trial run of IRL races on the track to test its readiness for the February event had exposed certain drawbacks, it is time to take a fresh and serious look at what went wrong where and take necessary corrective measures so that Hyderabad would emerge as the most-sought-after destination for such races in the future.