Month: March 2017
Noida: Pitambar, a 29-year-old from UP, won the his first professional truck race in the Super class category, and Nagarjuna A of Andhra Pradesh topped the Champion class race, bagging his second title as the fourth season of T1 Prima truck racing championship at Buddh International Circuit in Greater Noida drew to a close on Sunday.
Among the international truck racers who participated in the Pro class category, David Vrsecky of Czech Republic topped the charts.
Shivnihal Singh and Gurujant Singh of UP finished second and third respectively in the Super class category. A total of ten racers competed in the Super class category. All ten racers in this category were making their debut in a truck racing championship.
Mohabat Singh of Rajasthan clocked the fastest lap at 1:50.677 (minutes), while the winner of Super class category, Pitambar’s fastest lap was at 1:50.950 (minutes).
Apart for providing some edge-of-the-seat racing action, Season 4 of the event also hosted some prominent names from the music and film fraternity.
Bollywood star Akshay Kumar, the brand ambassador of Tata Motors commercial vehicle segment, attended the event in the afternoon and flagged off the Pro class race for international drivers. Singers Garima Yajnik, Siddharth Mahadevan, KK and budding singing superstars from Saregamapa Little Champs performed at the event on Sunday afternoon.
After winning the championship, Pitambar, who participated in his first truck racing competition, said, “I’ve been driving trucks since past 13 years, but had never participated in any racing event. I want to participate in more such events and represent the country at International platforms.”
Nagarjuna from Andhra Pradesh won his second title in the consecutive seasons of T1 Prima truck race. He said, “The drivers were better prepared this time.”
Stephanie Halm, the only woman truck racer to participate in the event in Pro class category, finished at eighth position.
With BJP’s clean sweep in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections, a proposed mega infrastructure project — an international airport in Jewar — could finally see the light of day. Talk of the second international airport in Greater Noidaresurfaced on Saturday, with the winning candidate for the Jewar assembly seat, Dhirendra Singh, listing it as his priority and Union minister for culture and tourism Mahesh Sharma, who is the MP from Gautam Budh Nagar, saying he would fulfil his promise to the electorate.
Union home minister Rajnath Singh, while campaigning in Jewar last month, had also said the Jewar international airport, first proposed by him when he was CM of UP in 2001, had already got the required approval from the Centre. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi is keen to develop world-class infrastructure in the country, which will help generate jobs,” Sharma told TOI. “The people of UP have shown their faith in the PM’s policies. We in turn will fulfil the aspirations of the people and my constituencies. We will seriously work towards establishing the airport in Jewar,” Sharma said.
Dhirendra Singh also said the proposed airport in his constituency would be a matter of pride.
The Yamuna authority has already reserved 5,000 acres for the project across 35 villages after it was first proposed in 2001.