Auto Expo spells chaos inside, outside Pragati Maidan

Friday was a day of chaos for those inside as well as outside the Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan. HT reports.

Friday was a day of chaos for those inside as well as outside the Auto Expo at Pragati Maidan.

HT Image

While all roads leading to central Delhi were packed, the situation inside the expo was as bad with kilometre-long lines forming outside display halls even on a day when entry was allowed only to media persons.

"The crowd management is dismal. Wall to wall people on a media day? Either management is lax, or media is the most popular profession in India (sic)," tweeted Anand Mahindra, vice president and managing director of the Mahindra Group.

The deluge of people forced Maruti to close one of the gates in its stall, but it took barely five minutes for the crowds to break through the handful of bouncers manning the other gate.

"We had warned the organisers about this, but our warning seems to have fallen on deaf ears," said a senior Maruti official.

"Tomorrow (Saturday) and day-after (Sunday) will be very tough days in terms of number of visitors that we expect to visit the expo. Close to 60,000 visitors came to the expo today as it was open to media and special invitees. We are prepared for tomorrow. What Anand Mahindra has said is very relevant. We always wanted to shift the expo to a better venue with better facilities. But there are just no facilities available as of now that offers all the advantages," Chandrajit Banerjee, director general of Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) told HT.

The DCP and special commissioner (traffic) were both seen managing traffic.