Saturday, February 12 2005 14:51 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone has revived India's hopes of hosting a Grand Prix within the next three years after it's Formula One chances had suffered a setback following a change of Government in Hyderabad last year.

"India will definitely have a race. It's just a case of where," Ecclestone told the BBC's 10 o'clock News India show last night (Feb 11, 2005).

"Kolkata and Hyderabad have both been linked with a Grand Prix in the past, but it would probably end up in Mumbai," he added.

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu's dream of bringing the Formula 1 car racing to Hyderabad had hit a roadblock after new Congress CM Y S Rajsekhar Reddy made it clear that the Government had urgent and serious issues to address rather than spending a fortune on the racing expedition.

"We are not in a position to afford Rs 10,000 crore for a racing expedition, which is an annual feature while our priorities are different and we have urgent and serious issues to address," Rao had said.

Ecclestone's comments come barely a week after Narain Karthikeyan joined the Jordan team, becoming India's first Grand Prix driver.

New Jordan owner Alex Shnaider, a Canadian steel billionaire, is also hoping that the presence of an Indian driver in his team will help build new business contacts on the sub-continent.