150,000 visit trade fair last day, Afghanistan gets gold medal

New Delhi, Nov 27 : The Indian International Trade Fair (IITF) concluded successfully Friday drawing a mammoth 150,000 visitors on the last day. For outstanding display Afghanistan was awarded gold medal among foreign participants.

"The last day saw huge crowds doing their last-minute shopping. At least 150,000 people visited trade fair on Friday, and we are very happy at the successful conclusion of the event," said an official of India Trade Promotion Organization (ITPO) that conducted the fair Nov 14-27.

The IITF drew 90,000 people Thursday too.

The organisers said they had made all arrangements for the smooth flow of the event and on last day there were extra security forces to handle any pressure.

Delhi Police had restricted the sale of trade fair tickets till 2 p.m. and entry into Pragati Maidan was stopped by 4 p.m.

Businessmen also gave discounts to customers to sell their products.

"We brought down the rates of all items by 20 to 25 percent in order to sell them as there is no use carrying them back home," said Asif Khan, a trader in Pakistan pavilion.

Besides hundreds of domestic participants, 27 foreign countries had participated in the event where Thailand was designated the partner country and China the focus country.

Among states, Delhi was partner state and Uttarakhand the focus state.

In the foreign pavilion category, Afghanistan received the gold medal, while Thailand was awarded the silver medal.

Kerala received the gold and Chhattisgarh bagged the silver for states while Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep received the gold and silver respectively in the union territories category.

Assam was awarded the gold medal among northeastern states for its pavilion.

In the central government and public sector undertakings categories, the National Mission on Bamboo Applications and National Small Industries Corporation received the gold medals respectively.