The annual All India Industrial Exhibition here, popularly known as Numaish, starting January 1 would have an enhanced entry fee of ₹30 per head as against ₹25 in the previous editions.
The hike was effected to offset the impact of Goods and Services Tax and the financial crunch facing the 18 educational institutions sponsored by the Exhibition Society, its president and Finance Minister Eatala Rajender and secretary N.V.N. Charyulu told a press conference here on Friday.
They said the hike was also necessitated in view of vacancies in aided posts of the educational institutions due to retirement of staff, that resulted in additional financial burden, and the implementation of fee reimbursement scheme for students. Nonetheless, the society expects to earn a revenue of ₹1.5 to ₹2 crore from all the sources, including auction of stalls, which is expected to fetch an additional ₹78 lakh more this year.
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The visitors for the 45-day fair are expected to be around 20 lakh. Free parking has been proposed in collaboration with the traffic police. The society has requested the police to deploy 40 home guards to regulate vehicle parking.
Mr. Rajender also said the stalls selling mineral water have been instructed to participate in the tendering process to make sure that the MRP of the bottles does not exceed ₹20. As they had quoted high prices in the previous years, the rate of water bottles was also high which would not be allowed this time.
There would be 2,500 stalls as usual and CCTV cameras all over the place for survillence. A toy train would provide joy rides to visitors.
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