The sale of gold cards by the district administration to access key locations during Dasara celebrations has received a lukewarm response.
Of the 1,000 cards issued by the district administration, only 280 have been sold till date. It becomes evident that the move of the district administration to sell a good number of cards online has not gone according to plan.
Additional Deputy Commissioner, Naga Nayak, who is in charge of gold cards, said that the sale of gold cards in the counter at the Deputy Commissioner’s (DC) office was good.
“We had expected that the sale of gold cards will be good online as well.
But, it has not been so. Since we are selling more cards in the counter at the DC office, we will sell the cards in one more centre, the Sakaala counter at the Exhibition Grounds,” he said.
Earlier, out of the 1,000 cards issued, 750 were listed on websites for sale, which did not receive a favourable response.
He said that the sales will pick up pace in the days to come, prior to the grand Jamboo Savari.
For now, the district administration is encouraged by the response from tourist agencies, hotels and individuals who are buying the cards directly from dedicated counters. “One of the star hotels in the city bought 10 cards a few days ago.
Since more number of tourists are expected to throng the city for Jamboo Savari, we expect that more cards will be sold in the coming days,” he said.
Deputy Commissioner C Shikha told Deccan Herald that since major events will be held in the last leg of Dasara, card sales will improve in the next few days.
The cards costing Rs 6,000 per family (couple and one child) will allow them access to all the major Dasara-related events such as torchlight parade, jamboo savari and others.
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