Handicrafts pavilion a hit in Baliyatra trade fair

Winter garments from Rajasthan, ladies shoes from Punjab, carpets and furniture from Uttar Pradesh and gamuchha from Andhra Pradesh are selling like hot cakes in the Ormas pavilion, Ormas zonal manager Bipin Rout said.

"The business till date is very encouraging from all the stalls and we are hoping for a record sale this year. Last year we made business of over Rs 8.5 crore and this year we are hoping to cross Rs nine crore," Rout said.

Stating that there were plans to set up more stalls in the pavilion next year, he said "We had to refuse many traders due to lack of space in the pavilion."

More than 1500 artisans and self-employed persons from the state and outside are participating in the week-long fair.

The traders are from Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and Uttarakhand.

Apart from Ormas pavilion, another handicraft pavilion - the Gandhi Shilpa Bazaar with over 150 stalls run exclusively by self help groups is also doing brisk business.

Yesterday, the organisers conducted a seminar on value addition in collaboration with a private company for artisans.