LAHORE: The registration portal for kite manufacturers, traders and sellers ahead of Basant 2027 will go live on Friday, 5 September, Deputy Commissioner Lahore Captain (R) Ali Ejaz has said, opening the licensing window roughly six months before the February festival.
The Deputy Commissioner set out the arrangements in an interview with vlogger Zohaib Butt, recorded at the Town Hall and published on his channel. The Lahore Times has reviewed the recording.
The central change is timing. Ali Ejaz said permissions are being opened around six months ahead so that manufacturers can register, produce stock and get it to market without the compression that shaped the last cycle.
“Whoever has to do manufacturing should do it, and prepare as much of their material as possible for the market,” he said.
That addresses the complaint that dominated the previous festival: producers were licensed too late to make anything at scale, and the shortfall was met at the last moment by allowing kites manufactured in other districts into Lahore.
Asked directly whether kites and string could again be brought in from outside, the Deputy Commissioner said manufacturing is being kept within Lahore.
“At this time it is within Lahore, and that is precisely why we have done this — so that there is no need to bring things in from outside,” he said, adding that sufficient time is being given for people to produce locally so that inventory records exist and safety precautions can be verified at source.
Asked whether outside supply would be encouraged, he said the effort is for people to manufacture, register, prepare and supply within the district.
For Basant 2026, the province had permitted manufacture of approved material in four additional districts — Faisalabad, Kasur, Multan and Sheikhupura — to meet demand. The stated position for 2027 is a narrower, traceable supply chain.
Manufacturers from other provinces are not excluded outright. The Deputy Commissioner said they may come, register themselves and declare the area where they intend to hold stock or manufacture.
Put to him was a specific grievance from the last cycle: that enforcement agencies had misused their powers, harassed licensed operators, and that seized kites were turning up inside police stations.
Ali Ejaz pointed to a new inventory feature as the answer. Manufacturers will upload their production into the system as they go, giving the administration a record that can be tallied against stock found in the field.
“We will have the record, it will tally with theirs, and the government will give proper protection,” he said.
The mechanism is straightforward in principle: a licensed trader with declared, logged stock has documentation to produce when challenged, and enforcement officers have a reference against which to distinguish permitted material from contraband.
The Deputy Commissioner listed several revisions to the system used previously. Photographs have been added. The QR code, present before, has been made more prominent. A QR code is being added for an app through which manufacturers can upload their inventory. The layout has been changed.
On accessibility, he said the interface has been made more user-friendly and that the longer runway means the portal will not face the load it did previously.
He was asked about a specific abuse from the last cycle — intermediaries charging applicants as much as Rs100 simply to enter their names on the portal. He said a complaints mechanism and a control room will operate alongside the portal so applicants can register themselves directly and report problems.
Three categories will be maintained: manufacturers first, then traders, then sellers, with traders and sellers kept separate.
An earlier proposal to confine string-coating and kite assembly to designated sites has not been adopted. Ali Ejaz said the arrangement has been left open, so manufacturers may work wherever it is convenient to handle and move material.
Asked whether any allowance had been made for women who make kites at home, he said that was a reason for not forcing operators to a single location.
“We have not forced them to come and work in one place, because the work happens in homes, it is indoor work, and ladies are involved in it,” he said, adding that workers can operate wherever their manufacturer’s workforce is based.
Kite-making has long been a household industry in the walled city and the older quarters of Lahore, with assembly, paper-cutting and string preparation frequently done by women working at home. A site-based licensing rule would have excluded much of that workforce from the legal supply chain.
The regulatory architecture exists because of what the festival cost when it was unregulated. Basant was banned in Punjab in the 2000s after metal- and chemical-coated string caused repeated deaths, particularly among motorcyclists, alongside casualties from celebratory gunfire.
The 2026 revival — held 6 to 8 February, the first in roughly two decades — operated under the Punjab Regulation of Kite Flying Ordinance 2025, permitting only thread-based string, dividing the city into designated flying zones, mandating protective antennas on motorcycles and banning aerial firing.
It was not without cost. The Punjab home department subsequently informed the Lahore High Court that 17 people died during the festival, with more than 100 accidents reported. The court has continued to examine how effectively the regulations were implemented.
New rules for the 2027 edition were announced in May, with Information Minister Azma Bokhari saying the February 2027 festival would be bigger than the last.
The portal opening is the first operational step of that cycle. The tests will be whether the inventory system actually prevents licensed stock from being seized, whether the complaints cell stops the intermediary charging, and whether confining manufacture to Lahore produces enough material to avoid another last-minute relaxation.
The Deputy Commissioner closed by repeating the appeal that motorcyclists fit safety antennas.
Interview conducted by Zohaib Butt and published on his YouTube channel; credited here in full. The Lahore Times has separately sought written confirmation from the Deputy Commissioner’s office of the portal launch date and category definitions.
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