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| The crowd at Book Fair 2010. A Telegraph picture |
The 35th Calcutta Book Fair will be free for all with the Publishers and Booksellers Guild waiving the entry fee for the 12-day event at Milon Mela starting January 26.
The organisers said the waiver, a first in the history of the Book Fair, was a tribute to Rabindranath Tagore on his 150th birth anniversary.
The guild used to earn around Rs 60 lakh from the sale of tickets. This year, an entry ticket was priced at Rs 5, while a bunch of four tickets could be bought for Rs 16.
“Instead of wasting time standing in long queues, we would prefer book lovers to spend more time browsing titles of their choice,” said guild secretary Tridib Chatterjee.
Though the secretary claimed that the guild was “not into any profit-making business” and was not concerned with the dip in the income following the waiver, he sought financial support from the Milon Mela authorities, government, civic body and other private and public organisations to make up for the shortfall.
Around 15 lakh people had visited Book Fair 2009. Guild officials said that with the World Book Fair in New Delhi not being held, the turnout at Book Fair 2011 could be higher, though that might not translate into higher sales.
Guild insiders said the sale proceeds this year were around Rs 17 crore.
“This fair, we will bring out a Rabindra catalogue containing information about all the writings of Tagore in both Bengali and English. Besides, there will be an exhibition on Tagore’s paintings, including some that had never been on display before,” said a senior member of the Guild.
The theme country of Book Fair 2011 will be the US. The fair will be inaugurated at 4.30pm on January 25 though the sale of books will begin the day after.
Chatterjee promised better security on the Mela ground with more CCTV cameras than in previous years.
Special train: Eastern Railway will run a special train between Howrah and Danapur on Wednesday on the occasion of Chhat festival. The train will leave Howrah at 11.55pm on Wednesday and reach Danapur at 10.30am on Thursday.