The NESCO Group’s Bombay Exhibition Centre (BEC) has opened its sprawling expo halls in Goregaon east to house thousands of stranded and lockdown-hit migrants, laborers and the homeless.

For the purpose, the BEC has tweaked its expo halls – usually meant for major national-international exhibitions – for the purpose of housing those who have been suddenly rendered homeless after the Covid-19 lockdown from March 25.

BEC’s 200,000 sq. feet expo halls will now provide a roof to more than 10,000 of these homeless persons in the current crisis. They include thousands of migrant workers affected due to the closure of work on major infrastructure projects like the metro, link roads, coastal roads, construction sites and daily wage-earners.

Though the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai and state government has been making efforts to shelter them, many more spaces are required for which the BEC has chipped in with its exhibition premises, said Nesco chairman Sumant J Patel.

“Thousands of migrant workmen who have been adversely affected due to the closure of the Mumbai metro, vital link-roads, coastal road and construction sites, have been left homeless. Although the BMC and the state government have been trying to accommodate them, they need much more space,” Patel was quoted by Press Trust of India as saying.

Due to the outbreak of COVID-19 many upcoming printing and packaging exhibitions that were slated to take place at BEC in the coming months have been deferred. The last major expo related to the printing or packaging industry that took place at BEC was Media Expo Mumbai 2020 held in late-February.

Some important events slated to be held at BEC that have been postponed include Screen Print India 2020. Taking into account public health concerns, travel restrictions and market volatility due to the COVID-19 outbreak, Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India has decided to postpone the Mumbai edition of Screen Print India 2020 scheduled to be held from 24 – 26 April 2020. The Mumbai edition is now planned to be held in the latter part of the year, and the new dates will be announced in the coming weeks, after consultations with the fair’s international and local supporting associations.

Messe Frankfurt Trade Fairs India also decided to postpone Gartex Texprocess India, which was slated to make its debut in Mumbai last month. Gartex Texprocess India is a comprehensive tradeshow on garment and textile machinery.

BolognaFiere Group and Informa Markets in India, organizers of Cosmoprof India 2020, have decided to postpone the 2020 edition to the new date of 29-31 October 2020 at Bombay Convention and Exhibition Centre. The event was originally scheduled to be held from 2 to 4 September 2020.

“The world is facing this crisis and it is our duty, as a company, to contribute in whatever ways possible. Currently we are facing a situation in our city, where thousands are rendered homeless with no access to basic necessities. We have provided our halls as temporary shelter and basic requirements while we battle Covid-19. We have coordinated with the local authorities to use our halls for this purpose,” Patel said.