37 stalls of Sangai Fest crash
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, November 28 2019: Altogether 37 stalls opened at Lamboikhongnangkhong as a part of the ongoing Manipur Sangai Festival, mysteriously came crashing down at around 11 pm yesterday.

Speaking to The Sangai Express, one of the stall owners, Kshetrimayum Memcha from Kakching Garden, informed that 39 stalls are opened for the State Government Departments at the ground located on the southern side of Manipur Trade Centre at Lamboikhongnangkhong and added that the stalls came crashing down inexplicably last night at about 11 .

On hearing the sound of the crash, the police personnel who were posted at the venue came rushing in, she said.

Fortunately no one was injured, she said, adding that officials are currently helping the owners of the destroyed stalls to shift to other stalls.

37 stalls of Sangai Fest crash

On the other hand, MANIDCO Inspector Nameirakpam Lakshmikanta said that for the Manipur Sangai Festival 2019, Department of Trade, Commerce and Industries handed over the work of establishing 400 stalls to MANIDCO at Lamboikhongnangkhong.

Lamenting the destruction of the 37 stalls, he said that the owners of the stalls are being given necessary space at other empty stalls present in the venue.

Seven stalls, and a police control room have been built at the incident site currently, he added.

Lakshmikanta continued that from the start of the festival till yesterday, there have been a total of 38 commercial Manipuri stalls, 65 commercial National stalls, 43 commercial foreign stalls.

There are also 31 Manipuri food stalls, 3 National food stalls and 1 foreign food stall, he added.

He then claimed that even though this year's Sangai Festival witnessed low turnout, the number increased significantly yesterday.

It may be mentioned that even though 400 stalls are opened at Lamboikhongnangkhong for the festival, till date it has been impossible to fill up all the stalls.

There are still scores of empty stalls at the venue and even the occupied stalls are not able to get adequate customers due to low number of visitors.

Some of the foreign stall owners even told ths reporter that they will not wait for the festival to end but instead will start returning home tomorrow.

Despite the grim situation, some of the foreign stalls selling jewellery and other items did see steady customers, mainly ladies, flocking to buy their items.