Bengal Chamber carnival in city

Kolkata is all set to go the Goa way with Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in association with West Bengal Tourism and Federation of Traders Organisation of West Bengal (FTO) planning a grand carnival.

Kolkata shopping festival, the 10-day event which would begin from October 10, would be first of its kind in the state. "We are trying to give it a carnival- like look after the most popular festival in Brazil and the mega shopping festival in Singapore," said B Gupta , president of BCCI.

The entire idea is to build a brand image of the state, its tourism and its potential retail trading sector, said A K Patnaik, principal secretary, tourism department, government of West Bengal (GoWB).

" This is the time for action from municipalities and government to create an environment of a mega shopping festival. Building necessary infrastructure as of parking near the shopping areas, cleanliness of the markets place are need of the hour. Then only such an initiative can be taken to an national and international standard", urged T K Trivedi, general secretary - FTO (WB).

The organisers are planning to take this year's pilot project further ahead in a larger scale in the years to come.

"We will be making arrangement for customers from our neighbouring suburbs and states to participate in the shopping festival. Our prime objective is to provide a platform to even small and medium retailers so that they can gain from this event", said N Suchanti, convenor of the festival.

The festival spreading all over the city would include chain of cultural events to be held at different shopping malls, crafts exhibition organised by Nimble Fingers "" an non government organisation (NGO), international coffee festival by Cafe Coffee Day, food festival at Charnock city, 'mid night bazar' at Vardan market and discount packages from several participating brands and retailers.