Singapore plans giant wheel to promote tourism

Singapore plans giant wheel to promote tourism

Associated Press/Singapore

Singapore seeks to boost tourism with a giant wheel that planners say will be 43 meters (142 feet) taller than the London Eye, a similar attraction beside the River Thames.

The Singapore Flyer project will be 178 meters (587 feet) high when it is completed in early 2008, and visitors will be able to see as far away as 45 kilometers (28 miles), with views of neighboring Malaysia and Indonesia, according to project managers.

Construction is expected to begin later this month on the Singapore Flyer, which will feature 28 air-conditioned capsules that treat tourists to a 37-minute ride as the wheel goes around.

The wheel will be built in Singapore's Marina Bay area, where the city-state also plans to build a casino.

Peter Purcell, managing director of the project, said German banks Delbrueck Bethmann Maffei and Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank are funding the project, which will cost 240 million Singapore dollars (US$143 million; euro116 million).

"The most successful iconic visitor attractions anywhere in the world are viewing platforms" such as the Eiffel Tower in Paris, The Straits Times newspaper quoted Purcell as saying.

Singapore hopes 2.5 million people will visit its sightseeing wheel in its first year of operation.

The London Eye, which offers a sweeping view of central London, attracted some 3.5 million visitors in 2000, the year it opened, and remains hugely popular.

Singapore's observation wheel is a joint venture between Melchers Project Management, a German logistics and engineering company, and Orient & Pacific Management, a consultancy based in the British Virgin Islands, the newspaper reported.