Greater Noida: Automobile manufacturers gave a thumbs-up to the Auto Expo as the show kicked off 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 & President (Automotive & Farm Equipment Sectors) Pawan Goenka said.
Maruti Suzuki India Chief Operating Officer (Marketing and Sales) Mayank Pareek said: "Baring 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.
The first two days are media days for the seven-day expo between February 5-11. It will be open to general public from February 7. Ticket prices have been kept at Rs 200 and Rs 500.
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 organisers 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 a smooth flow of the event, a three-layered security has been put around the 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.
Mathur said the organisers have also taken help from professional agencies and partners to provide volunteers inside each hall to guide visitors.
"For each hall, one director has been appointed and all of them are provided with a staff of 10 each," he added.
Unlike in the past, the 12th edition of Auto Expo is split into two due to space constraints, with the motor show being held at Greater Noida and auto components exhibition at the traditional venue of Pragati Maidan.
A total of about 5.40 lakh people are expected to visit both the venues this year. At the last expo in 2012, an estimated 7 lakh people had visited the expo.
This year 55 exhibitors are exhibiting their products at Greater Noida in comparison to 45 in the last edition of the Expo. However, the number of exhibitors at the component show is less at 1,100 from 1,500 in the last exhibition.
