coimbatore the flower market in the city was crowded on the eve of vinayaka chaturthi on thursday as a large number of people turned out to buy ganesh idols and other puja itemsshopkeepers said the crowd was negligible till 4pm but people started thronging the market when they got out from workplaces late in the evening social distancing norms went for a toss at the market because of the sheer number of people we could not control them a shopkeeper saidflower vendors said the situation wasnt much different on wednesday flower prices meanwhile shot up because of the huge demand jasmine which was sold at rs 400 a kg was priced at rs 1400 on wednesday similarly prices of other flowers too had skyrocketedh azath a trader said the price had slightly come down on thursday when jasmine was sold at anywhere between rs 800 and rs 1000 per kg he said mullai was priced at rs 600 per kg seventhi chrysanthemum at rs 120 per kg oleander at rs 250 per kg button rose at rs 230 per kg and a rose bunch 20 flowers at rs 120the price dropped on the day because of the increase in supply and lower demand compared to the previous day most of the traders had purchased flowers in bulk on wednesday itself he saidvinayaka idol sellers were also happy as they could sell more idols this year last year they could sell only a fraction of the idols that they had made because of the restrictions in place g selvam an idol seller at the flower market said the sales are encouraging this year and we expect around 7080 of the usual sales this timeareas such as ganapathy singanallur thudiyalur and vilankurichi also witnessed a large crowd who turned out to purchase idols and puja itemsb maragatham a resident of ganapathy said the idols were priced high this year but it wasnt a deterrent as i spent on it only once a year we usually visit a temple to celebrate the festival this time we are planning to restrict the celebrations to home because of the restrictions in place