Lucknow, February 6:

Call it Jabeer Babu Ansari’s magic carpet. He hit the limelight by weaving a 160-foot carpet for Hyatt hotel in China, and is now flooded with orders from that country.

“I have 10 orders from China,” an elated Ansari, who runs a carpet manufacturing unit at Saroi in Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh, said over telephone. “If you go by the orders placed by the Chinese, I will have to use nearly 15,000 metres of carpet-backing cloth for making all the carpets,” he added.

Bhadohi, some 250 km from Lucknow, is one of India’s biggest carpet manufacturing centres, with production mainly aimed at foreign markets. Carpets manufactured here range from the cotton durries to the finer Chhapra Mir and Loribaft varieties, apart from Nepali and shaggy carpets.

Ansari said this is the first time multiple orders have come from China. As per the Hyatt order, he had to manufacture a carpet 156 feet long and 111 feet wide. The bright yellow carpet was despatched last week in 13 separate pieces, which will be assembled together in China.

He spent about Rs.1.5 million on the hand-made wool carpet that weighed over seven tonnes.