Flower show tickets stay offline

Flower show tickets stay offline
Online booking which was introduced by Lalbagh Horticulture department last year for the Republic Day flower show, has been cancelled this time
BANGALORE MIRROR BUREAU


If you were thinking of booking tickets online for the Republic Day flower show this time, you might as well forget it. The Department of Horticulture at Lalbagh has decided not have online ticketing this time and the tickets would be available only at the ticket counters there.
It was just last year that Lalbagh had introduced the online system of booking tickets for the flower show, keeping in mind the IT driven population in the city. But, it failed miserably. “We could not meet our expectations through the novel feature. We were expecting that at least around 10,000 visitors would make use of the internet-backed iTicketing facility. But only 1,500 people have purchased tickets through online bookings,” said a senior official at the Horticulture department.
The official said that only Rs 26,000 could be collected over a period of seven days. More than 10 lakh visitors across the state had visited the flower show last time round.
This year, not wanting to repeat the same mistake, ticket counters would be present only at each entrance of Lalbagh. The security has been tightened with spy cameras and metal detectors. The department is expecting around five to six lakh visitors this time as compared to three and a half lakh last year. The number of exhibitors too have increased from last year.
The flower show starts on Jan 19 and will go on till Jan 27. There would be two public announcement centres at the venue, one at the entrance and the other outside the glass house.
FLORAL
QUTUB
The main attraction this time is the replica of the Qutub Minar. It has been made with over one lakh different flowers including a variety of roses. The structure also has lights which will be switched on and off at regular intervals.The floral Qutub Minar stands at a height of 30 feet. “ We decided on this long time back. It took us 10 days to get this prepared,” said N Jayaram, Director of Horticulture.
Another attraction at the flower show is the life of river Cauvery depicted in the form of a statue using more than 16,000 roses. It has a height of 15 feet and has been made by the participants of the flower show.