Work on Changi Motorsports Hub halted

Work on Changi Motorsports Hub halted
By Ian De Cotta | Posted: 14 February 2011 2215 hrs

SINGAPORE : Work on the Changi Motorsports Hub has been stopped since the middle of last month.

This comes after SG Changi, which won the bid to build the facility, failed to deliver an instalment for the S$50 million piling work.

MediaCorp has learnt from SG Changi that the S$10 million outstanding amount will be paid on Tuesday, after company chairman and shareholder Fuminori Murahashi secured a personal loan.

"The amount will be enough to cover the entire cost of the piling work, but it is not going to cover the amount needed to complete the project," SG Changi's director and general manager, Moto Sakuma, told MediaCorp.

He added: "We have secured US$200 million from investors in Hong Kong that would have allowed us to do so, but they have frozen the funds."

The S$370 million project came under scrutiny after recent reports said the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau had begun a probe into the tender for the project.

It was revealed the consortium's only other shareholder, Thia Yoke Kian, had been assisting the bureau with investigations since November.

The Singapore permanent resident led the group to beat two other consortiums in their bid to build the track, but was dropped from the management team in July.

While Mr Sakuma said they have handed their accounts and records to the Bureau and cooperated fully, they are unsure if the probe in still ongoing or has been concluded.

A karting circuit, a quarter-mile drag racing strip, a motor museum and 35,000 square metres of commercial space are also being planned for the Motorsports Hub.

The probe has spooked interested parties, especially those from Singapore, and SG Changi now plans to court investors from Japan and Europe.

This could inevitably lead to the country's first permanent motor race track being under the total control of foreigners when completed at the end of 2011.

- CNA/ms

- wong chee tat :)