Tokyo - Japanese firms said on Wednesday they will construct the world's biggest Ferris wheel, rising about 150m high above Singapore, in what they hope will become a global tourist attraction.

Japan's top trading house Mitsubishi and construction firm Takenaka said they won the order worth 10 billion yen (about R582-million) to build the Ferris wheel in the heart of the island-state.

Mitsubishi said the new Ferris wheel would be bigger than the London Eye, the Millennium Wheel built on the River Thames beside the British houses of parliament in 1999, which is now the world's tallest, standing 135m high.

The construction of the Ferris wheel in Singapore is expected to be completed in February 2008, Mitsubishi said. Each passenger capsule can accommodate up to 28 people, up from London Eye's 25.
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