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Ch. Prashanth Reddy

HYDERABAD, May 10

IT claims of being the "world's largest hand-tufted carpet". Weighing over 10,000 kg and occupying an area of 17,000 sq. ft, it just might be.

According to Zeba India Pvt Ltd, which designed and manufactured it, 52,000 hours were spent on creating the carpet for the Viceroy Hotel and Convention Centre here.

Zeba's Vice-President J.G. Irani said 65 craftsmen were involved in hand-tufting the carpet and 80 skilled workers were engaged to give it the finishing touches. Each worker, on an average, spent 17 hours per day for almost six weeks to complete the project.

The non-stop manufacturing activity began on November 28, 2001, and continued till January 10, 2002.

The carpet was simultaneously produced in the multiple units of Zeba's Mirzapur factory in Uttar Pradesh. Three big-sized trucks were booked to transport the carpet to Hyderabad while forklift cranes were used to lift it on to the trucks.

Twenty skilled workers travelled from Mumbai to Hyderabad just to lay and install the carpet across the convention centre of the Viceroy Hotel. It took them seven working days to unroll, shear, cut, latex, bind and fix it on the ground.

Now, Zeba has submitted to the Limca Book of World Records and Guinness Book of World Records for registering it has world's largest hand-tufted carpet. Irani told Business Line that Limca had already accepted the company's claim.

But how much did the endeavour cost? Irani remained tight-lipped.

He, however, said the average retail price of a hand-tufted woollen carpet was about Rs 235 per sq. ft. At this rate, the carpet would cost Rs 38.95 lakh, but for large orders, the rate was stated to less than the retail price.

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