“Barnaparichay, the first-ever exclusive Book mall in Kolkata developed by Bengal Shelter Housing Development Limited, a joint sector vehicle of West Bengal Housing Board will finally see the light of the day this September with the inaguration of “Sharod Boi Parbon”, a nine-day book fair.
Rehabilitation of around 1,400 book stalls which flanked on both the sides of College Street book market-well known in Kolkata as a treasure trove of rare books, would begin from December onwards in a phased manner, said Samar Nag, managing director, Bengal Shelter Housing Development Limited on the sidelines of a press conference.
“The rehabilitation of the book stalls will be expedited post-September this year. The book fair will be held in the second and third floor. We hope to complete fifth, sixth and seventh floors by December 2010 and make it fully operational,” he added.
Nag pointed out that the project got delayed by four months because of the absence of any concrete building plan of the 100 year-old building which was being restored and revamped into the eight-storey exclusive mall.
The mall will have all modern infrastructure like digital library, book stalls, book hospital, reading room and other amenities such as food joints, Coffee house, Nizam and others. The renovation and revamping of the College Street book market, one of the oldest in the city is a part of the urban renewal project which WBHB has taken up.
Apart from this, Bengal Shelter is planning to start a new initiative whereby the entire stretch of the road between Coffee House and Barnaparichay will be used for display, buying and selling of old books every Sunday.
It happens in Daryaganj, which is famous for its all time markets like the Sunday market or kitab bazaar (book market) which is held every Sunday on street pavements.
“We are trying to start something like what happens in Daryaganj in New Delhi and other cities where a certain location on a specific day is used for buying and selling of old books. We started off it in Kolkata but had to stop. We want to start off it again post monsoon every Sunday with cooperation from Kolkata Municipal Corporation, traffic department and other civic authorities,” said Nag.
