Two-wheelers sold like hot cakes in Ranchi, Dhanbad and Jamshedpur on Thursday, a day after the Supreme Court banned the sale and registration of all vehicles not compliant with BS-IV emission norms from April 1.
Showrooms offered lucrative discounts and some even free insurance to exhaust their stocks of BS-III vehicles while buyers lapped up the offers, resulting in more than 5,000 bikes and scooters being sold or booked in the three cities by evening.
Atul Gupta, a senior executive of Rahul Hero on Bariatu Road, Ranchi, said they were offering discounts between Rs 5,000 and Rs 12,500, besides free insurance on all bike variants. "The discount is calculated on the on-road price. We sold 25 bikes soon after opening shop. The figure is expected to cross 100 by the time we close," Gupta said.
Premsons Honda in Harmu dealt with heavy rush too, selling at least 40 bikes in the morning hours. "We are not taking booking requests. It is on-the-spot sale today (Thursday and tomorrow (Friday). We are offering discounts between Rs 13,500 and Rs 22,000. We are not making profit. The company has promised to reimburse our losses," said Arun Rajgadhia, an executive of the showroom.
In Dhanbad, Guru Kripa Auto, an authorised Hero bike dealer, said 700 two-wheelers out of their stock of 1,300 had been booked on Thursday. "We are offering discounts ranging from Rs 7,000 to 14,000. Insurance is also being sold cheap," said proprietor Sharad Dudani.
Gopal Chatterjee, marketing head of Reliable Group, another authorised dealer of Hero bikes, said they had 1,400 BS-III two-wheelers in the showroom. "Barring 150, all were either sold or booked today (Thursday)."
Gopalka Honda in the coal town is offering discounts up to Rs 15,000 on scooters and bikes. "We are getting more than the regular number of buyers," said owner Dilip Gopalka.
Moonka Honda in Jugsalai, Jamshedpur, claimed to have exhausted its BS-III stock of scooters in a day. "We are offering a flat discount of Rs 13,500 and sold all our 60 scooters. On bikes, the discount is Rs 18,500 and we have had 115 buyers so far," said Ashok Agarwal, an executive of the showroom.
Union Hero in Bistupur, Jamshedpur, is offering a rate cut on insurance too. "We have sold 30 scooters (total discount Rs 14,500) and 50 bikes (discounts between Rs 7,000 and Rs 9.500)," said proprietor Arun Ahuja.
The car market isn't vrooming as hard.
Manoj Kumar, an executive of Pratik Automobiles in Ranchi, said they had 20 SUVs of BS-III emission standard, each priced around Rs 9 lakh, but found no takers in the wake of the SC order.
Bike buffs are happy. Niraj Kumar, a 20-year-old college student in Ranchi, said big discounts being offered by showrooms helped him finally convince his father to buy him his dream machine. "For a year now, I wanted a bike. But, my father always refused on some pretext or the other. Today, he said yes!"
Ramjatan Pandey, a retired schoolteacher, visited Premsons Honda to buy a bike for his son-in-law. "I still ride a bicycle, but today's generation likes speed. So, I decided to get my damad one."
Additional reporting by Pinaki Majumdar
