Visitors browse through books at the fair on Monday. Pictures by UB Photos

Oct. 8: Enthused by the unprecedented footfall at the Guwahati Book Fair yesterday, Dispur today announced to extend the 28th edition of the fair till October 14.

The fair is being held on the playground of the Assam Engineering Institute at Chandmari and the Publication Board, Assam, is organising the fair.

According to the original schedule, the fair was to be held from October 2 to 12.

Education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told reporters that the fair witnessed a record number of bibliophiles on Sunday, which had brought great kudos to the organisers.

He said the organisers were expecting more crowds in the coming days and the fair has been extended till next Sunday.

“On Sunday, 35,000 tickets were sold and the actual number of visitors was expected to be higher than the total ticket sales, since students, prominent personalities and litterateurs get free entry to the fair. Going by a conservative estimate, the total number of visitors were 40,000, which was itself a record on a single day in the history of the book fair,” Sarma said.

Terming such huge footfall as a very positive development, Sarma said the board has initiated several steps to popularise the oldest book fair of the state.

He said the state government has decided to turn the book fair into a literary festival from this year.

Many eminent personalities like Girish Karnad would participate in the fair in the next few days and eminent litterateur from Bengal, Nabanita Deb Sen, will visit the fair tomorrow and attend an interactive session.

Sarma said the book fair would also celebrate 200 years of the first printed Assamese book, Dharmapustak, by Atmaram Sarma.

“The book, which was found at the British Library, London, has been reprinted by the Publication Board,” he said, adding that the reprinted version of the book would be inaugurated by chief minister Tarun Gogoi during the fair.

In 2009, the venue of the book fair was shifted to Maniram Dewan Trade Centre at Lokhra.

Sources said in the past two years, the event witnessed poor footfall, since the distance of the venue was too far for the visitors.

The minister said the actual number of books sold during the fair would be known on the concluding day and that the number of young visitors to the fair was quite significant.

He announced five new awards on research, history, Vaishnavite culture and literature, various ethnic communities and contributions to science, literature and creative literature.

The prize money would be Rs 1 lakh each, besides a citation. Sarma said the awards would be presented during a function at the fair venue on Friday.