Park Street flyover eats into book fair area

The 30th Kolkata Book Fair, 2005, to be held from January 26, 2004 to February 6, 2005, may see lesser number of stalls this year.

The flyover being constructed on the Park Street-Chowringhee Road crossing had eaten away 2 lakh square feet of the book fair's total space of around 10 lakh square feet.

Tridib Chattopadhyay, secretary of Publishers and Booksellers Guild, organisers of the fair, said the number of stalls this year was yet to be decided. He admitted, "There will be definitely lesser number of stalls but we would try to make up for the loss with better planning."

Last year the fair had 625 stalls. The guild would give priority to publishers while allotting stalls. Chattopadhyay said close to 2.5 million visitors were expected to attend the fair this year compared to last year's footfall of 2.2 million. The focal theme and partner country of the book fair this time would be France. and

Spain would be the country of honour, Kalyan Shah, president of the guild, said.

Besides these two countries, 13 nations and multinational organisations like WHO, ILO and World Bank would put up pavilions at the fair.

The fair would have a business hall, where publishers from India and abroad would be able to negotiate business deals.

The fair would have an IT Park with software suitable for libraries, schools and technical disciplines would be displayed along with computer hardware and CDs.

About the proposed post-graduate diploma course in book publishing being planned by the guild in alliance with Calcutta University (CU), Chattopadhyay said CU would advertise the course in December and start it in January 2005.

Children's Book Fair

Publisher's & Bookseller's Guild would organise its first children's book fair, 'Chotoder Boimela', from December 17 to December 25 this year at the Akademi Nandan Complex.

This book fair would coincide with the 'Sishu Sahitya Utsab' to be organised by Paschim Banga Bangla Akademi. The book fair would have 30-32 stalls this year.

If the response was favourable, the guild might consider increasing the number of stalls next time, said Probir Mazumdar, treasurer of the guild.