Cuttack, Nov. 15: A kiosk selling medicinal plants grown at the Badambadi nursery here has turned out to be a crowd-puller in Bali yatra this year.

These rare varieties of plants have been priced at Rs 10 each, while they are available at a price ranging from Rs 50 to Rs 150 in the market. These plants are not easily available at nurseries across the state. The Cuttack Municipal Corporation had set up a medicinal garden on nearly 2.5 acres at the central nursery with more than 60 varieties of such plants in 2014.

Visitors are queuing up at the counter as medicinal plants and herbs are used to treat common diseases, including cough, cold, fever, arthritis, stomach disorders and excess hair loss.

"I had not expected that I would get medicinal plants at such reasonable rates here. This is the first time I'm visiting the fair and the experience has been unique," said a visitor from Balasore, Ram Kishore Agarwal.

This is the second time that the civic body has set up a kiosk for selling medicinal plants grown at its central nursery. Plants and herbs with medicinal value, including giloy(Tinospora Cordifolia), nageswara (Mesua Ferrea), pippali(Pepper longum) and vringraj (Eclipta alba) are being sold at the booth. One can also get lemon grass (cymbopogon), satabari (asparagus racemosus), hatapocha (coleus barbatus), asoka(sacra asoca) and aswagandha (withania somnifera).

"People are inclining towards traditional methods of healing such as ayurveda for treatment of diseases," said local resident Dilip Bhuiyan.

Municipal commissioner Gyana Das said the civic body was trying its best to get rare medicinal plants from all across the state. So far, our business had been fairly good because herbs such as arjuna, amla, tulsi andneem have high demand and we sell them at reasonable rates, he said.

"We did a business of Rs 22,000 by selling more than 22,000 plants last year and we hope it crosses Rs 50,000 this year," Das said.

"We sold plants worth Rs 3,500 on the opening day itself," said Debendra Swain, an employee at the kiosk.

The civic body plans to increase the number of medicinal plants it grows at its nursery from 60 to 100.