Police Curbs, Rising Costs Affect Festive Business
An idol transport operator with a fleet of five vehicles received around 30 bookings, earning Rs 8 lakh income.
Hyderabad:The 11-day Ganesha festival is one of the major business seasons for informal workers like idol-makers, transporters, DJ operators, brass bands and decoration contractors. The festival, this year, turned out to be quite different.
Barring idol transporters, people involved in informal businesses like DJ, brass band, decoration segments have reported mixed business due to police restrictions, rising input costs and changing spending patterns.
An idol transport operator with a fleet of five vehicles received around 30 bookings, earning Rs 8 lakh income. Bookings, which largely began from the fifth day of Ganesha Chaturthi, were around 40 per cent higher than last year.
Vinod, a manager of the transport operator, said charges ranged from Rs 15,000 to Rs 30,000 depending on the immersion day. The highest-paying trip fetched `40,000 for transporting an idol from the Old City to Shamirpet.
He said driver costs had also increased as traffic on immersion days often resulted in a single trip taking more than 24 hours.
However, Sameer Khan, a transport provider from Musheerabad, said demand for his vehicles was lower than last year as some organisers were hiring tractors from suburban areas. His charges ranged from Rs 8,000 to Rs 14,000.
The DJ service providers also recorded fewer bookings. A DJ and event-services provider received around 20 bookings worth Rs 12 lakh this season. Single-pin DJ setups start at Rs 10,000, while packages comprising sound boxes, truss structures, lighting and DJ equipment cost up to Rs 75,000. The highest-value booking this season was `2 lakh. They attributed the decline in bookings to restrictions on DJ permissions during immersion processions.
Brass and pad band operators reported a similar trend. S. Anil of Sri Suraj Music Brass and Pad Band in Musheerabad said the number of workers engaged by his group had declined from 120 last year to around 70 this year. “There is not much demand compared with last year. The restrictions imposed by the police have affected business,” he said.
Charges range from Rs 5,000 to Rs 1 lakh, depending on the number of bands and requirements.
Decoration contractors also reported a slowdown. P. Vinay Kumar, who operates in West Marredpally and Gandhi Nagar, said he had decorated around 20 pandals last year, with each order worth about Rs 1 lakh. This year, he secured work for six pandals, with orders averaging Rs 70,000 to Rs 80,000.
Flower vendors, meanwhile, reported steady sales. Bhaskar of Monda Market said business was slightly better than last year, though competition had increased. Marigold was priced at Rs 100 to Rs 150 a kg and chrysanthemum at Rs 350 to Rs 400 a kg. He sources flowers from Gudimalkapur and Karnataka. He said demand peaks at the beginning of the festival and during immersion days, while unsold stock could result in losses.
