CHENNAI: On the eve of Deepavali, the city got into a festive mood, but sale of crackers at Island Grounds was only 40 to 50 per cent so far, sellers said. A fireworks bazaar with about 80 stalls has been started at Island Grounds here. Vendors said the sale was dull. ‘’Only 40-50 per cent of crackers have been sold so far, compared to 85 per cent last year, said S Suresh, a vendor. On Saturday, though a decent crowd came to the bazaar, vendors said it was less than last year.
‘’Easily, two lakh from the city came on Deepavali eve to the bazaar last year, but this year it has not touched even one lakh yet,’’ he said. Sellers attribute this dip in sales to three factors-restricted timings for bursting crackers, cracker prices and a general lack of interest among people. P Bhaskar stands outside his stall and invites people to come in. People enter, only to see the price and leave. ‘’People are not aware about green crackers. Green flower pots and sparklers are 10 per cent costlier than last year while a family gift pack costs about 1200,’’ he said.
Last year, the Supreme Court banned sale of high-polluting firecrackers. Following this, green crackers, which are said to contain 30 per cent less particulate matter and produce less noise, were launched by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research - National Environmental Engineering Re s e a r c h I n s t i t u t e (CSIR-NEERI). However, due to less number of manufacturing licences, green cracker production is minimal and are limited only to firepots and sparklers. In many shops at Island Grounds, green crackers were not available at all.
“The production itself was only 60 per cent this year due to low demand. However from the manufactures’ side, all the crackers have been sent for sales,” said K Mariappan, secretary, Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufactures’ Association. “Reasons for the dip in sales could be rain or high prices but we can’t say conclusively on the percentage of sales yet. We will only know after two days’” he added. Meanwhile, vendors hope that cracker sales will touch 90 per cent at least by tomorrow. ‘’One store has stock worth `20 lakh. Imagine the loss, we will suffer if sale falls flat tomorrow. We hope it picks up,’’ Bhaskar said.
Traffic jam in many areas
Last minute shopping at T Nagar, G A Road at Royapuram and Purasawalkam caused traffic jam on Saturday. It was a hectic day for police officials.