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India is ‘booming’ says local industry veteran
Pandeep Sharma has been in business in India for 25 years, both as an operator and a supplier to the amusement industry. Originally from Delhi, he is now based near the Indian capital where he heads up the company Bombay Amusement Rides Private Limited (BARPL).
“India is booming,” he says, mirroring the sort of outlook offered by many analysts. “The trend is for indoor amusement centres, with more than 1,800 due to open across the country in the next three years. There are 67 in Mumbai alone, and eight close to my home!”
Such facilities are popular, he says, because of their novelty value. “The combination of amusement mixed with shopping in a climate-controlled area is something many people have never seen before. The lower classes used to think that all the shopping was expensive, but now there are stores offering discounts. Most indoor centres have amusements now of some kind, and families like to spend the time there together.”
In his days at Essel World and Water Kingdom, Sharma was head of maintenance for the biggest themed waterpark in Asia, resigning eventually as vice-president. Whilst there he also engineered attractions in-house, paving the way for his transfer into the manufacturing side of the business.
Until 2005, he worked for the Italian supplier Preston & Barbieri. Now at BARPL, the company’s catalogue currently comprises bumper cars, swinger rides (mini chair-o-planes), ropeways and ice-skating rinks, and there are plans to expand the range into other areas.
As well as India, the company also exports to various Gulf countries, where similar rides from Italian manufacturers struggle to get any real foothold. A large project recently commissioned from the company was the installation of a 450 square metre ice rink in Riyadh. Production is currently booked throughout 2007, at three factories.
A committee member of the Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI), Sharma also helped draft the country’s first amusement industry safety standard, published in 2005. “Indian manufacturers must improve quality or they will be out of business,” he observes.
According to Sharma, Bombay Amusement Rides uses, “the best steel in the world, by Tata, Italian bumper car drive systems/clutches, and electrical systems by Siemens. Our rides conform to European norms and we can even get TÜV approval if a customers needs it.”
www.bombayamusement.com
