When Bharat Rashtra Samithi headed by former chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao was in power in Telangana, it had its own priorities to get the national and international focus, forgetting the ground realities.
His son K T Rama Rao, who was heading the industries, infrastructure and information technology departments, was trying to showcase Hyderabad on the global market with his fancy ideas.
One such idea was to conduct Formula-E races in the heart of Hyderabad on the banks of Hussain Sagar. Though it attracted international players, it also caused a lot of inconvenience to the common people for several weeks.
Hundreds of trees were uprooted to make the track for car races and there were traffic diversions for several days creating big troubles for the people.
But the newly-formed Congress government in Telangana headed by A Revanth Reddy has its own priorities, instead of encouraging such fancy thoughts.
So, when the organisers of Formula-E races approached the government seeking clearance for their next race scheduled to take place on February 10, 2024, Revanth said nothing doing.
As a result, the organisers on Thursday announced that they are calling off the Formula-E races on tank bund. They said they had sought clarification with the new Government of Telangana led by the Congress after receiving a letter which could impact the Hyderabad race.
The statement read: “Following a recent official communication received from the new Government of Telangana, Formula E is seeking urgent clarification of their contractual commitments under the agreement and how it could impact the Hyderabad race. Based on the content of the letter received, Formula E is concerned the race will not be able to go ahead as planned.”
Formula E’s senior executive team met with the new leadership of the Government of Telangana immediately following elections earlier this month. Discussions have been ongoing since then.
With the event just a few weeks away and in its final stages of preparation, Formula E, partners and suppliers have already made significant commercial investments in the event.
The BRS leaders said the inaugural Hyderabad E-Prix in February this year returned almost $84 million in positive economic impact to the region, many times more than the overhead costs invested by Formula E and the Government of Telangana.
“Former IT minister K T Rama Rao played a pro-active role in bringing the Formula E event to Hyderabad, and has clearly placed the city front and centre on the electric mobility field globally besides giving the industry a boost nationally. But now, the city has been missing a major event due to some unforeseen reasons after the change of guard in the state,” the BRS sources said.
