Singapore to build biggest Ferris wheel

Singapore is planning to build a 560ft Ferris wheel that will replace the London Eye as the biggest in the world, officials said today.

The Singapore Flyer is expected to reach the height of a 45 storey building by the time it is completed in 2005.

People at the top will be able to see as far as neighbouring Indonesia and Malaysia, tourism officials said.

But if Singapore sets a record with the wheel, it may not hold it for long.

China said last year that it is planning to build a 660ft wheel in Shanghai, also by 2005.

The chief executive of the Singapore project’s development managers said the Flyer would be a major engineering feat, not just a “carnival attraction”.

Peter Purcell acknowledged the city-state’s wheel was a copy of the London Eye, but said he did not know of any modern constructions that had not followed on from other ideas.

“I stand accused and plead guilty,” he said when asked whether the plan had imitated London’s 446ft wheel.

Wealthy Singapore has recently been rolling out a number of tourism projects as it struggles to lure back visitors scared away by the SARS outbreak, which killed 32 people there.