India changes its mind, again: PlastIndia will be in Gujarat

TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Less than five months before the opening of India's largest plastics show, PlastIndia, its organizers have decided — again — to move it, this time from New Delhi to a just-finished exhibition center in the western India state of Gujarat.

The decision, announced at a public event organizers held Sept. 27 at the Taipei Plas fair, is the second time in a year that the PlastIndia Foundation has changed its mind and shifted the show's location.

The Foundation first decided in May 2013 to move the show from an antiquated, 40-year-old exhibition center in Delhi that lacked adequate power and other basic support, to Gujarat.

But five months later, in November 2013, they reversed that decision and moved it back to Delhi's Pragati Maidan exhibition grounds, after some international partners and exhibitors questioned whether the Gujarat complex would be ready in time. The show is scheduled for Feb. 5-10.

Now, the Mumbai-based Foundation is reversing its reversal, and going back to their original plan — the Mahatma Mandir fairgrounds in Gandhinagar, near the city of Ahmedabad.

Foundation officials said they inspected the Gujarat complex Sept. 18 and on Sept. 19 made the decision to move, after seeing that the fairgrounds are, in the eyes of the Foundation, complete and ready.

“We expect that with the infrastructure, the capacity, the capability of the Indian exhibit organizers, we'll have no problems [with the Gujarat facility],” said Rajesh Mohta, chairman of PlastIndia Foundation's international promotion committee, at the Taipei Plas event, held to brief potential exhibitors.

“The exhibition ground has come in a very beautiful manner,” he said. “We took the initiative and decided we must move to Gujarat.”

Mohta said Gujarat state, the home of the country's new prime minister, Narendra Modi, is home to 45 percent of India's plastics industry.

In an interview after his speech, Mohta said construction at the new complex in Gujarat has made rapid strides since November.

“At that time it was just barren land, there was not even a brick being put there,” he said. “So at that time we had all the reservations about whether such big infrastructure can come in such a short time.”

“But yes, the government of Gujarat has done it,“ Mohta said. “For the benefit of our exhibitors, we still feel it's better to go to Gujarat than to go to that old blessed place called Pragati Maidan.”

Jatish Seth, a member of the Foundation's international promotion committee, said power shortages were rampant at Pragati Maidan, a big problem given the industrial equipment exhibitors bring.

“One of the biggest bottlenecks has been power problems, so people would use generators,” said Seth. “We've had experiences where the smoke of generators is going into people's stalls.”

Mohta said that officials from Messe Düsseldorf, perhaps PlastIndia's most important international partner, visited the Gujarat fairgrounds Sept. 27 and gave their approval.

“They have seen it, they are happy,” Mohta told the meeting. “There is nothing in writing to say they have approved it. They are happy. They have seen the whole project.”

Messe Düsseldorf, organizer of Germany's K Fair, the world's largest plastic show, leads a big delegation of European exhibitors to PlastIndia.

About a dozen representatives of Messe Dusseldorf flew by charter plane from Mumbai to Gujarat to inspect the show grounds, Mohta said.

The new complex has 14 show halls ranging in size from 4,000 to 10,000 square meters, with a total usable exhibit space of just over 100,000 square meters.

Pradip Nayyar, a member of the PlastIndia Foundation's managing committee and president of the Kolkata-based Indian Plastics Federation, one of seven trade associations that make up the Foundation, said there's broad support for moving.

“We come to a single decision,” he said. “The single decision is now we are going to Gujurat. It was a unanimous decision by the managing committee.”

Seth said foundation officials met with several Taiwanese exhibitors to the India fair the day before the announcement, and got a good reaction to the change of venue: “We found everybody positive.”

Foundation officials said the Gujarat complex will be easier for exhibitors to ship their machinery to than New Delhi.

They said there are 2,500 rooms available for the show in four and five star hotels, and 5,000 more in budget hotels. The complex is 20 kilometers from the Ahmedabad International Airport, with direct flights from Europe, the Middle East, Southeast Asia and the Americas, the foundation said.

PlastIndia will be the third show held at the new fairgrounds, foundation officials said.