Deepavali cracker sale picks up in Sivakasi

CHENNAI: With just a few days left for the Deepavali festival, bazaar streets in Sivakasi were abuzz with activities as many shoppers thronged stores selling crackers and picked up boxes of crackers they preferred to celebrate the festival of lights.

According to T Ganesan, a retail trader in Sivakasi, his shop sells a wide variety of crackers, numbering over 150 items. Shoppers mostly fancied their chances of buying aerial fireworks to light up the night skies rather than conventional crackers.

Among several items, the best pick turned out to be the one with multi-shot functions with a colorful firework display. Moreover, five new varieties have been introduced this year with displays that go up to 500 feet and these items surpassed the previous year’s model that lit up to 300 feet. A piece of this new variety is priced at Rs 1,158.

“Apart from consumers, who buy a limited number of products, traders from various parts of Tamil Nadu also preferred Sivakasi crackers in bulk quantities,” he told DT Next on Monday.

As far as manufacturers are concerned, the sale and bursting of green crackers allowed by the Supreme Court in Delhi-NCR for five days during Deepavali has come as a welcome relief.

Referring to it, T Kannan, general secretary of The Indian Fireworks Manufacturers Association (TIFMA), thanked the judiciary and the Delhi Chief Minister as well. Delhi is the biggest market for Sivakasi crackers, and after conditions were relaxed, demand boomed and eleven truckloads of crackers were dispatched to buyers in Delhi a couple of days ago.

As for A Asaithambi, president of Sivakasi Fireworks Manufacturers Association (SIFMA), production declined by about ten per cent over the last year due to frequent accidents in manufacturing units.

On the relaxation of conditions in Delhi, he said it came in the last hour after productions were almost over this year, and it could have a positive impact next year.

According to G Abiruben, vice president of Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association (TANFAMA), rain intervention in October, November and December last year slowed down production.