Now enjoy two extra days of Auto Expo next year

Amid criticism over crowd mismanagement, the organisers of the biennial Auto Expo are contemplating an increase in the duration of the event by one or two days in the next edition, citing heightened interest from auto enthusiasts.

"We are considering extending the show by a couple of days more. For the next auto show, we will put this proposal as organisers, but it is for the exhibitors to take the final call on it as each extra day would mean an additional cost for them," CII Trade Fairs Council Chairman Rajive Kaul told PTI.

He said the lesson learnt from the experience this time is that one day should be reserved strictly for the media and exhibitors and no extra passes should be given out for that day.

The 11th Auto Expo co-hosted by SIAM (Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers), CII (Confederation of Indian Industry) and ACMA (Automotive Component Manufacturers Association) kicked off at Pragati Maidan in New Delhi on January 5 and is on till January 11.

Kaul, however, feels that crowd management continues to be a challenge for organisers of the show.

"Managing the crowd is a challenge as there is a lot of interest from people across age groups and infrastructural bottlenecks remain," he added.

The organisers have already taken several steps to make it easier for all the stakeholders of the show, he claimed.

"In the past, we had never put a cap on the number of visitors, but this time we have put a restriction of one lakh people, including 30,000 people from the exhibitors' list and support staff," he said.

Even the exhibition space this time has been reduced to create 10,000 square metres of free space for people to walk around. Furthermore, the number of exhibitors has been reduced to 1,500 from 2,100 in 2010, he said.

"To make ticket access easy for public, we have sold tickets at 26 metro stations as well. We have also tried to minimise the chances of copying passes and tickets," he added.