All fingers crossed at truncated trade fair
NEWDELHI:On the second day of the 37th India International Trade Fair (IITF) at Pragati Maidan, traders and merchants were elated that the fair seemed to have recovered from the effects of demonetisation that had plagued the event last year.
Though many are hopeful that business will pick up and flourish further this year, some are also concerned about the ongoing construction that has cut the exhibition space to half.
“Last year, business was almost zero. This year, more people seem to have turned up and they are actually buying stuff, so we are hopeful that business will be better this time around,” said Amar Singh, a trader form Moti Nagar in Uttar Pradesh, who is selling jewellery at the fair.
The trade fair had begun on November 14, 2016, around a week after the Modi government had demonetised ₹500 and ₹1,000 rupee notes. Traders had lamented about how the decision had affected both footfall and the the purchasing power of visitors.
However, as only a little over half the Pragati Maidan premises are in commission this year, space allocated to some traders have been cut to half.
“Earlier, we used to set up shop in the Tamil Nadu pavilion and got an entire shop to ourselves. This year, I am sharing the space with someone else. I am selling sarees, I need the space to display my products,” said Shanti (who goes by her first name), from Dindigul in Tamil Nadu.
The state pavilions have also been razed down, and they have been given space in the temporary hangars to set up their shops. However, as there are only six temporary hangars, this also means that multiple states are set up in the same hangar. For instance, hangar one is home to Delhi, Meghalaya, Chandigarh, Chattisgarh, Manipur and Haryana, while Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Lakshwadeep, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, are at hangar two. Hangar 15, which is one of the largest, has the most number of state pavilions, including last year’s best pavilion winner Kerala, Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and others.
“Customers are confused. They can’t find the pavilions. Earlier they knew exactly where they needed to go to find the stalls from particular states, as many had permanent state pavilions here. Now they are just aimlessly walking around,” said Mustafa Khan, who is selling artefacts from Gujarat.
Customers did not seem too fazed by the limited space. “The smaller area in a way is more convenient, as we can cover more states and stalls in a single day now. We also don’t have to walk as much,” said Sonali Sharma, a resident of Patparganj, who made a beeline to the foreign pavilion at hall 18 when she reached the fair on Wednesday.