Auto Expo is strictly business this year

 Automobile manufacturers gave a thumbs-up to the Auto Expo as the show kicked off on Wednesday in a very business-like manner even though the new venue here is a little far off from New Delhi where the previous edition was held but was marred by poor crowd management.

“This is a much better organised one compared to the last edition. What I see is that almost all manufacturers are putting their best foot forward despite the slowdown,” Mahindra & Mahindra executive director and president (automotive and farm equipment sectors) Pawan Goenka said.

Maruti Suzuki India Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said: “Barring the fact that this venue is far from Delhi,
as a participant we found it to be quite good. The infrastructure, pavilion and amenities are quite good, nearly up to the international
standards. Plus, the logistics part is very easy.”

“We have found this facility, the India Expo Mart very comfortable and better than the earlier venue. We are impressed with the planning, space and exhibitor facilities. We hope this only gets bigger and better in 2016. We congratulate them on an excellent job done,” Kenichiro Yomura, President, Nissan India operations said.

Crowd management may be put to the test when the expo opens for the public from February 7 to 11. Tickets have been kept at Rs 200 and Rs 500. About 5.4 lakh people are expected to visit both venues, from 7 lakh people in 2012.

Poor crowd management in the last edition had forced business leaders like Anand Mahindra to comment that the expo should be a “serious business” not a “tamasha”. Having learnt lessons, organisers CII, SIAM and ACMA have not taken chances this time around.

The Society of Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) director general Vishnu Mathur said the organizers have done “months of meticulous planning” for the event with a dedicated team.

“We hope that the situation we saw today prevails in the next seven days,” he added.
To ensure smooth flow of the event, a three-layered security has been put around India Expo Mart here with UP Police being deployed for external security on road outside the venue, CISF manning the gates and Group 4 personnel taking care of security inside the 16 halls. MORE Mumbai and New Delhi are the two major international air gateways in India.

The existing Mumbai airport, run by a consortium of infrastructure firm GVK and the state-run airport operator, recently increased its passenger-handling capacity by opening a new terminal.

The joint venture company running the Mumbai airport has a right of first refusal for the new airport.