PATNA: Two-wheelers worth about Rs 100 crore were sold by showrooms in Patna in just two days – Thursday and Friday – as buyers rushed to take advantage of the huge discounts offered on all models of bikes, spurred by the Supreme Court's ban on the vehicles complying to BS-III emission norms after March 31. By Friday evening, nearly 100 showrooms of bikes in Patna had run out of their stocks.
“I bought a Hero Maestro Scooty. The offer was irresistible. It is not every day, not even during Dhanteras or Diwali that one gets a Rs 14,000 discount on this bike,” said Suman Kumari, a student of BSc second-year at a city college. Discounts of bikes of Hero models ranged between Rs 6,600 and Rs 14,000 while those of Honda between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. Bajaj bikes had discounts between Rs 7,000 and Rs 12,000, said sources.
The rush of customers to bike showrooms in Patna, left showroom owners and managers exhausted. Since registration of BS-III bikes could not be undertaken after March 31, the showrooms had arranged for their registration on the spot. Most purchases were conducted by exchange of cash, said sources.
“We had to ask a lot of customers to take their bikes in a day or two. It was tough to cater to this sudden rush of customers,” said Sandeep Kumar, general manager of Pataliputra Automobiles, one of the most prominent showrooms in Patna. He, however, declined to reveal the sales figures.
The largest crowds of customers were seen at showrooms of Hero MotoCorp and Honda bikes in Patna. Similar scenes and unexpectedly high sales were also witnessed in other major cities in Bihar like Muzaffarpur, Bhagalpur and Gaya.
“It was disappointing that there was no discount at all on Royal Enfield bikes,” said Sanjay Kumar, a businessman who was planning to own an iconic Bullet bike.