Car sales growing faster in eastern region, notes SIAM

KOLKATA - India’s eastern region is seeing a faster growth in sales of automobiles than the other regions of the country, a senior official of the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (SIAM) said Friday.

“Eastern region is growing faster than other regions of the country,” SIAM director Sugato Sen said during the inaugural of the Auto Show East at the Salt Lake Stadium.

“The eastern region accounts for 13 per cent of the automobile sales with West Bengal’s share being just above 3.5 percent of all-India sales. The industry feels that there is immense opportunity for increasing the share of this region in overall automobile sales… the share of West Bengal grew by 25 percent last year,” he said.

Stakeholders, including foreign manufacturers, felt that the biennial Delhi Auto Expo was not enough as the Indian auto industry was growing at an annual rate of 32 percent, Sen said.

“They need to know the entire Indian market and its consumers. So we decided that in the intervening period of the Delhi Auto Expo, we will hold regional expos. We started with Hyderabad in May. Kolkata is our second regional venue and then it will be shifted to Pune,” he said.

SIAM decided to hold the second edition of the regional expo here in the city “to give a boost to the eastern market”, which accounts for 11 percent of the national passenger vehicle sales and 13 percent of the two-wheeler sales, said the director.

SIAM, partnered with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), has brought 16 automobiles companies to Kolkata to reach out to the customers and showcase their vehicles.

“This is the first major initiative of SIAM in the eastern region and the largest automotive show in Kolkata. SIAM plans to make this a regular event in its overall programme calendar and make it a biennial show to be held in the intervening period of Auto Expo in Delhi. But if we do not get any response from customers, we may shift our venue from Kolkata to any other places in the eastern region,” said Sen.

Auto Show East, which was inaugurated by Transport Minister Ranjit Kundu Friday, would be open each day from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. till Nov 22.