Changi Motorsports Hub contract terminated

Patwant Singh Channel NewsAsia 16 May 12;

SINGAPORE: The construction of the Changi Motorsports Hub may finally be called off, after the final termination papers were signed on Wednesday.

The Singapore Sports Council (SSC) will take back possession of the land from the SG Changi consortium on Thursday.

SG Changi could not complete the Changi Motorsports Hub as the company had run into various financial difficulties.

The next step for SSC will be to see if there are any parties interested in taking up the project.

The Request for Information phase will last from August up to the end of 2012.

A decision on whether a re-tender will be called will be made in the third quarter of 2013, SSC elaborated.

SSC CEO Lim Teck Yin said there could have been more stringent criteria in place when it came to examining the financial strengths and organisational ability of the bidding consortiums.

"We could have gone further to require a level of assurance about being able to finance the entire project, maybe through the likes of a bankers guarantee for the entire project, and not just the ability to buy the land," he said.

"That could have benefitted the project, since we were also trying to achieve other national objectives, not least trying to get the hub up on time and ready."

"But those are the lessons learnt," he added.

SSC said it welcomes both local and overseas investors and is also keeping its options open to both motorsports- and non-motorsports-related concepts.

In informal sessions, it has already met five or six interested parties and will be engaging the services of a consultancy to help it with the feedback process.

- CNA/wm