Hyderabad: Hyderabad’s most-awaited annual extravaganza — Numaish is likely to be back in January 2022 with the Exhibition Society applying for permission from the State Government to conduct the annual expo. The Exhibition Society had aborted the annual Numaish early this year due to the amid pandemic. “Considering the current situation, we are hoping that government will permit us to conduct the Numaish in January 2022,” said B Prabha Shankar, Secretary of the Exhibition Society.
The Society needs to get approvals from different departments, including Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), Police, Fire Services, Electricity and Roads and Buildings. Apart from applying for permission, the Exhibition Society is also issuing applications to set up stalls at the 81st All India Industrial Exhibition. Usually, about 2,500 stalls are set up at the expo. However, given the prevailing circumstances, this time, the Exhibition Society is not expecting any applications from traders from abroad, especially the Middle East.
The expo also generates about Rs 15 crore income to the government through GST (from sale of entry tickets, stall rents, sales from shops) and municipal tax. Every year, the expo is conducted from January 1 to February 15. For the last 80 years, the expo was successfully organised and it was perhaps for the first time that annual Numaish could not be conducted this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The organisers had even planned to conduct the expo for a limited period this year but had to shelve their plans following rules from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Apart from Hyderabadis, people from different districts in Telangana and neighbouring States look forward to visiting the annual expo. In addition to trade promotion, the event features cultural activities. This time too, the Numaish will have all the regular attractions such as music concerts, food festivals, entertainment shows. On average, the Numaish draws about 50,000 visitors a day and the cumulative total of visitors during the 45-day event would be about 20 lakh. Like all these years, the focus would be on promoting entrepreneurs from different fields and provide a platform for them to exhibit their products and services, said Prabha Shankar.
Festival Mela a big hit
Exhibition Society’s Festival Mela-2021, held from October 14 to November 3, drew nearly one lakh visitors. All Covid guidelines were strictly followed and no untoward incident was reported during the Festival Mela, said Prabha Shankar. Interestingly, many traders from northern and southern India had turned up in large numbers to set up their stalls in the mela.
