Most people budget for Basant by thinking about kites, which is the wrong end of it. Kites are the cheapest thing on the roof. The line costs many times what the kites do, and if you are renting the roof, the roof costs many times the line.
This page puts the whole bill in one place for a single roof. Unit rates are on the kite price page and the pinna page; how many of each thing a roof needs is on the kite list. What follows is the arithmetic of putting them together.
The five lines of a Basant bill
In the order they matter, which is not the order people think of them in.
1. The roof — Rs 0, or a great deal. If it is your own, this is free and the rest of the page is the whole budget. If you are renting in the Walled City, roofs for 2026 ran from around Rs 500,000 to over Rs 1 million, with prime ones reported at Rs 2.5–3 million. Nothing else on this list is in that range. What roofs cost and what to check covers it.
2. Dor. The largest equipment cost by a distance. Our 2-piece pinna is published at Rs 8,000. A roof that is seriously fighting pech may want more than one, and buying the second in Basant week is the expensive way to find that out.
3. Kites. The cheapest part, and the part everyone budgets for. Rs 350 for a 1 tawa, Rs 450 for a 1.5 tawa. Even a generous stock of a dozen is less than one pinna.
4. Safety gear. Rs 750 for gloves, Rs 200 for tape — per person, not per roof, which is the bit most people get wrong. Three flyers is three pairs.
5. Food. Highly variable, and the one that quietly inflates. Fried snacks through the afternoon, chai at sunset, then haleem or barbecue in the evening across the festival adds up to more than the kites do. What actually gets eaten has the shape of it.
A worked example, at published prices
One family roof, their own, three flyers, three days of flying. Using our published prices:
| Item | Unit | Qty | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 tawa kites | Rs 350 | 8 | Rs 2,800 |
| 1.5 tawa kites | Rs 450 | 2 | Rs 900 |
| 2-piece pinna | Rs 8,000 | 1 | Rs 8,000 |
| Gloves | Rs 750 | 3 | Rs 2,250 |
| Medical tape | Rs 200 | 2 | Rs 400 |
| Equipment total | Rs 14,350 |
Two things to read out of that table.
The dor is 56% of it. Ten kites together come to Rs 3,700; one pinna is Rs 8,000. Anyone comparing kite rates carefully and glancing at the dor has the whole thing backwards.
Safety gear is just under a fifth of the bill. Rs 2,650 of Rs 14,350. It is the line people cut first and the one worth cutting last.
This is an illustration at our own published prices, not a market survey — and no government rate list has been notified for 2027, so nobody has an official figure to quote.
The three decisions that move the total
Everything else is noise next to these.
Whether you rent a roof. This is not a line item, it is a different budget. Own roof: low five figures. Rented Walled City roof: six or seven. Decide this first, because it determines whether the rest of the page matters.
When you buy. Prices climb in the fortnight before Basant, and dor climbs hardest — supply is finite because only registered manufacturers may produce, demand arrives all at once, and the buyers left at the end cannot walk away. Buying in December instead of the first week of March is the single largest discount available to anyone.
How much line you plan for. One pinna or two is a Rs 8,000 decision, and it is the one most likely to be made wrongly in both directions. Which pinna a roof needs goes through it.
What not to save money on
Dor. Unusually cheap line is not efficiency — it is less line than you think, or it is not plain cotton. The second kind carries the penalties in the Act and is what turns a cut across a rider's neck into something worse.
Gloves. Rs 750 against a hand. Line running under load cuts bare fingers, and this is the most common injury on a roof.
The roof itself. A cheap roof with a low parapet is the reason twelve of the seventeen people who died at Basant 2026 died. The standard is 3.5 feet and sound, and it is not negotiable down to fit a budget.
Frequently asked
How much does Basant cost for one roof?
At our published prices, a three-flyer family roof on its own rooftop comes to roughly Rs 14,350 in equipment — ten kites, one 2-piece pinna, three pairs of gloves and tape. Food and a rented roof are separate and can dwarf it.
What is the most expensive part of Basant?
A rented roof, if you rent one. Otherwise the dor: one 2-piece pinna at Rs 8,000 is more than half a typical equipment bill on its own.
How much is a kite in Lahore?
Rs 350 for a 1 tawa and Rs 450 for a 1.5 tawa at our published prices. Kites are the cheapest part of a Basant budget.
How can I spend less on Basant?
Buy early — prices climb sharply in the last fortnight, dor most of all. Use your own roof. Do not economise on line or gloves.
Is there an official price list for Basant 2027?
No rate list has been notified for 2027. Any figure quoted today is a market price or a seller's published price, not a government one.
Kites, dor and everything that goes with them
Every price above is published on the front page, and everything is sold singly — no bundle you have to buy around. See the products and prices.
Selling is paused while our registration is suspended by the Punjab Government — see the notice. The products and prices stay published so you can plan, and we answer questions either way.
- Patang & gudda
- Cotton dor
- Pinnay
- Gloves
- Tape
- Delivery in Lahore