Cuttack, March 23: In an effort to popularise Oriya publications, National Book Trust (NBT) yesterday has started a nine-day treat for bookworms here.

Christened Cuttack Book Fair, the event is being organised as a part of NBT’s golden jubilee celebrations in association with the Orissa Publishers’ and Book Distributors’ Association and is being held in the Bali Yatra Maidan.

“In this year’s fair, we have dedicated a special pavilion to all our Oriya publications that also include a large number of English to Oriya translations and also translations from different regional languages,” said Pramod Sar, NBT’s officer in charge for the fair.

“The NBT, so far, has published over 400 publications in Oriya. In the past five years there has been 25 releases in this language every year,” Sar added.

Last year in November and December, the NBT had organised a mobile book fair that had travelled across Orissa. The month-long fair had travelled across major districts in Orissa between November 5 and December 5 in a bid to popularise NBT’s Oriya publications. The areas covered included Bargarh, Jharsuguda, Sundargarh, Rourkela, Panposh, Bonai, Deogarh, Angul and Nayagarh.

“There was an unexpectedly good response. We sold books worth Rs 2.5 lakh (approximately) during the month through the mobile fair,” Sar admitted.

However, the conventional book fair that started yesterday here is being arranged after a long gap, with the last fair being held in 1975 in Cuttack. The fair venue is spread over an area of 8,000-sq-ft.

Apart from local publishers, the Cuttack fair will also have publication by the NCERT, Kendriya Sahitya Akademi, Standard Literature, Anmol Publications and Neelkamal Publication.

The convener of the Orissa Publishers and Book Distributors Association, Bijay Padhihari, admitted that the fair move was being contemplated for long now.

“Cuttack is the hub as far as book publishers in Orissa are concerned. Thus, a fair in the city should ideally be an annual affair,” he added.

Of the 317 registered publishers in Orissa, over a 100 are based in Cuttack itself, he added.