Property Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Kochi
Malabar
Thiruvananthapuram
Meet the exhibition builders
|
Have you ever wondered what goes into the making of exhibition stalls? Take a look at what the city’s professional team, Amanullakhan’s Sons, has to say to RANJANI GOVIND
|
— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy
STALL & STRUCTURE: Abbas Khan and brothers are getting the infrastructure for STONA-2008 fair ready at Palace Grounds.
There will be no sale of products at the STONA-2008 exhibition. The fair, from the All India Granites and Stone Association (AIGSA), will be a platform to house the assortment. “One could see the world stone market here, get informed and educated about the multiplicity of products available. This is a place where one gets acclimatised with anything and everything about natural stones and books orders for the requirement,” said an official at the press meet of t
he AIGSA, a non-profit association serving the natural stone industry dealing with granite, marble, limestone, sandstone quartzite, slate and ornamental stone and the ancillary industry of quarrying, processing, machinery, tools and equipment.
STONA-2008 will be on from February 6-10, a five-day extravaganza, at Bangalore Palace Grounds featuring 2,100 stalls from over 400 exhibitors. Apart from stone dealers from all over India, this fair, touted to be the biggest of its kind in Asia, has invited participation from China, Turkey, Egypt, Italy and some other parts of Europe.
Making up the exhibition space
Any event that is of this magnitude requires enormous space. A space that could take a strong make-shift structure for stalls. PropertyPlus delved into the nuances of how professionals at this exhibition have got together to build a space that would need to hold humungous weight, given the nature of the exhibition – STONA, or the world of stones. After all, isn’t it a feat to take up an exhibition-build in about 35 acres of land in which parking and packing material dump has to be provided for?
The city specialists
Says Abbas Khan of Amanullakhan’s Sons, “This has been our family business for several decades now. We are four sons of Amanullah Khan – Abbas Khan, Imtiaz Khan, Ayub Khan and Majeed Khan – who are taking care of the exhibition pandals since three decades and each one of us look after specific aspects of the business.”
And what is the weight-withstanding formula for STONA? “We will use pre-fabricated metal mega structures that we introduced in 1996, in which the 100 per cent waterproof galvanised iron (GI) sheets help in any kind of weather. There will be a reinforcement to the smooth wooden flooring that is provided for the entire structure. Casuarina poles with wooden rafters hold the wooden planks. Above this a plywood flooring would take care of the levelling. Movement would be made smooth with coir carpets running criss-cross throughout the exhibition, including the walkways, making it a dust-free area,” says Abbas Khan.
The biggest running platform goes up to 21,000 sq. m. done in plywood and fitted within such structures are air circulators and metal hylide for lights. “This would help the platform get stability to withstand the tonnes of stone being brought here. Each stall is going to be heavy with one-and-a-half tonnes, and we are looking at about 400 stalls of this kind!” says Abbas Khan.
The section which the Chinese and Italian companies have taken is of a different kind. “Here the tool display wouldn’t require pre-fabricated GI mould. We have a pre-fabricated aluminium stall with laminated panels, and a softer synthetic carpet to go with the nature of the showcase,” says Abbas Khan.
The STONA venue at Palace Grounds has been busy for the last few weeks with 500 people of different categories of skills working at great pace to meet the demands of the show starting on February 6. Carpenters, structural labourers, carpet layers, electricians and maintenance personnel are the back-stage heroes doing the job that costs about Rs. 80 lakh for the organisers.
Recalls Abbas Khan, “It was my grandfather B.G. Khasim Ali Khan who pioneered the ‘chapra’ business in Bangalore. Those days my grandpa used coconut leaves and bamboo mats, then it was modified to sarve mara (casuarina tree) and slowly stepped onto GI sheets. In the mid-Nineties we upgraded the material to pre-fabricated metal and today we even have the largest stock of air-conditioning in the city,” says a proud Khan.
The Khan brothers are behind most of the make-shift structures that happen in the city. Be it cricket season, the IT and BT conferences or the heavy automobile machinery fair.
“The recent Sonia Gandhi Congress rally and the Mayawati BSP rally were with our structures. But what we derived satisfaction from is our temporary camp for Haj pilgrims at Millers Tank Idgah Ground, and of course another large one for the Soundarya Lahiri recitation where thousands participated,” says Khan.
The Government of Karnataka is the co-sponsor and Floriana Concept Marble (Katni, Madhya Pradesh) is the principal sponsor of STONA, while the effort is supported by the Union Ministry of Mines and Commerce, amongst others.
(Contact 94480 69100 or 080-23612541 / 65582228 for details and booking)
* * *
• The Silver Jubilee celebrations of the Association planned at the STONA Fair will be presided over by the Minister of Commerce, Kamalnath, on February 8 at the same venue.
• A buyer-seller-meet will be organised in a special pavilion with IT network and administrative assistance with prior registration formalities.
• Shilpagram, an artisans promotion programme, will be arranged in a dedicated area wherein stone artisans from all over India will showcase their styles. This platform will expose them to thousands of visitors who can approach them for their products.
• 45 awards will be given away in several categories by a specially constituted jury headed by senior architect Thimmaiah, along with Chamaraj Reddy, president, Builders Association of India, and Shyamala Prabhu, Hon. Secy., Indian Institute of Interior Design.
• A seminar on geology, mines, safety and environment will be organised with professionals taking to the dais.
• Unique stone creations will be displayed in the entire expanse of the exhibition area.
• A National Stone Museum with samples of all the varieties available will be another highlight.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Property Plus
Bangalore
Chennai
Hyderabad
Kochi
Malabar
Thiruvananthapuram
|
