This is the time of the year when the coal capital thinks, breathes and reads books.

Citizens are celebrating the annual literary extravaganza at the zilla parishad grounds where Dhanbad Book Fair-2015 kicked off on Sunday evening.

Litterateur Vinayak Bandopadhyay inaugurated the event in the presence of BCCL CMD T.K. Lahiry, Nirsa MLA Arup Chatterjee, CIMFR director Amlendu Sinha, DGMS director-general Rahul Guha and deputy mayor Niraj Singh.

On the racks of 59 stalls will be a range of books by Deep Publication, Chaya Publication, Saumya Publication, Anand Publication, Sahitya Mandir, Chitra Lekha and Shishu Sahitya, among others.

More than 100,000 books on a series of 42 subjects like literature, history, science, science fiction, biographies, autobiographies, philosophy, religion, languages, among others, will be on sale at the fair organised by Bengali Welfare Society.

"People of all age groups, including school and college students, professionals, retired persons and housewives are visiting the stalls. A token entry fee of Rs 5 is being charged from the visitors. This apart, we have given free passes to two dozen schools," said Kanchan Dey deputy general secretary of Bengali Welfare Society.

The fair is open between 4pm and 10pm daily till April 5, he added.

To add zing to the fair, the organisers have lined up a host of cultural programmes. Renowned artistes like Basudeb Das (March 31), Arup Mukherjee (April 1), Sumantra Sengupta (April 4) and Maadal Band (April 5) will perform through the week at the fair.