Delhi Autoexpo 2012....the Carwala Kumbh mela

It was supposed to be as grand and breathtaking like Frankfurt Auto expo or Shanghai Auto expo but it turned out to be yet another blot on Indian Government's face. Now we excel is screwing up even the most simple to manage events. Auto Expo is being managed really badly. The space is awful, the cleanliness standards is terrible. This is an international show not a 'tamasha' or an entertainment where families and kids can just walk in and think of having fun. According to industry sources, the organisers have issued one pass for every square metre of space booked by the participants, resulting in a total of about 1.15 lakh free passes for the first two days.

Although I have been to Delhi Auto Expo several times therefore it wasn't a new experience for me but the anxiety of seeing the new cars that take ages to get launched In India drove me nuts to pull all strings to lay my hands on business invites. We went on the second day of the event thinking that we would avoid the aam janta rush which will begin from next day onwards. But I didn't know that I was out for a surprise. It was complete chaos. To begin with we got stuck in an hour long traffic jam which should have not taken more than five minutes to cross on a regular day. But that was just the beginning.

We entered the venue with great anticipation to see great cars but alas all we saw was a crowd of KUMBH MELA. I wondered how so many people managed to get business invites. But you know in Delhi everyone has a connection. There were no business people to be seen. Only college fuchas, aunties, kids and everyone that should have not been there. It was as if the entire Delhi had come on a picnic. People were jumping on each other. In a cold Delhi weather we were sweating like a dog. It was claustrophobic and cacophonic. There were no directions or any sort of auto expo guide. Nobody had a clue which brands were in which stalls. Figuring out a stall was like solving a puzzle.

Nonetheless between so much chaos we found our way and did manage to get a glimpse of some great looking cars which would probably take ages to be seen on Indian roads.

Some of the beauties were just too breathtakingly beautiful. BMW pavilion was the best one since it had a great reason in the form of MINI COOPER launch besides the concept cars, bikes and BMW Ultra luxury series. However, it was too difficult to catch a glimpse of the newly launched car, forget having a closer look and touch of the car.

Jaguar, Audi, Mercedes showed their muscles in the form of

Surprisingly Maruti and Tata pavilions were quite good.

Here are the pictures of some of them:

Jaguar C-X75 Hybrid Supercar

 

Mini Cooper

 

Mercedes- Benz SLS AMG GT3 racing car

 Mercedes- Benz SLS AMG GT3 racing car

Mercedes-Benz AMG

Polaris off roader

Polaris off roader

Maruti Suzuku XA Alpha Concept car

Maruti Suzuki XA Alpha Concept Car

Nano Pixel Concept car

Suzuki Bikes

Suzuki Super bike

Suzuki off roader

Land rover

BMW Pavillion

Mercedes E Fuel

Suzuki Hayabusa

So after passing through hordes of people we finally managed to drool over these mean machines.

We took 4 hours to have a deko at four halls. After that we were dead tired. So we decided to have some gol gappas. They were really bad and the guy who served us was too unhygienic. Everywhere there were paper plates flying. It was all too stinky and dirty. Being Indians we felt so awkward I wonder how foreigners would have reacted to such poor management.


And then around 6pm we decided to return to our office. And it wasn't over by then. We could not get through our driver's mobile number. There was a huge network problem. We waited for him for 45 minutes and then walked for at-least for 4 kilometers before finally getting through his number.


Over all it was too nightmarish and i would like to forget it soon.

I would have loved if Government could have managed it well. We really need to pull up our socks when it comes to organising international level events. We can't get more participants and business until we deliver on basics like cleanliness, space management, crowd control etc. 

And if our government is incapable of handling such events then let the private sector handle it. They'll do a far better job than what we saw.

Hoping somebody would be listening to all of us.