Formula 4 car race in Chennnai | Madras High Court waves a green flag
The Hindu
Madras High Court approves Formula 4 Indian Championship and Indian Racing League Night Street Race in Chennai.
The Madras High Court on Monday waved the green flag for the conduct of Formula 4 Indian Championship as well as the Indian Racing League Night Street Race on a 3.7 km long street race circuit planned around the Island Grounds in Chennai city.
The Second Division Bench of Justices R. Mahadevan and Mohammed Shaffiq refused to stall the two races at the instance of a group of public interest litigants and instead permitted the State government to conduct the races with certain conditions.
The judges ordered that attention to the highest degree must be paid to public safety and patients of Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital at Omandurar Estate and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital must not be subjected to inconvenience.
On being told that Federation Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA) homologated Gen 2 Mygale F4 cars each weighing 535 kg and powered by turbocharged engines were to be used for the race, the judges ordered installation of sound arresters around the circuit to avoid disturbance to in-patients.
The Bench also made it clear that the spectators must be provided with necessary safety gear since it had been represented that galleries for them would be erected at appropriate places around the circuit passing through Flag Staff Road, Kamarajar Salai, Sivanandam Salai and Anna Salai.
Authoring the verdict, Justice R. Mahadevan pointed out that the two races were to be conducted in Chennai city for the first time on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding entered between Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu (SDAT) and Racing Promotions Private Limited (RPPL).
Since the MoU provided for only an obligation upon the State government to spend ₹42 crore in the first year for the creation of the racing circuit besides another ₹15 crore each during two subsequent years and did not provide for any profit sharing formula, the judges said, the government could have negotiated better terms.
Political economist Parakala Prabhakar has described the exit poll results as “fudged figures”, saying that those would benefit the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) only. “False predictions were given with the sole objective of helping the NDA in rigging during the counting,” alleged Mr. Prabhakar, after releasing a book titled ‘Avineeti Chakravarthi Narendra Modi’ penned by former Minister Vadde Shobanadreeswara Rao, here, on June 2 (Sunday).