Workers unload books at the fair venue in Chandmari on Tuesday. Picture by UB Photos

Guwahati, Dec. 24: Altogether 153 publishers and booksellers from across the country will take part in the 12-day 15th Northeast Book Fair that will begin tomorrow at the Assam Engineering Institute playground at Chandmari here.

“Among others, 24 publishers and booksellers will come from Delhi, 22 from Calcutta, one each from Mumbai, Ludhiana and Pune. The number is 78 for Guwahati,” said Ajit Barman, president of the All Assam Publishers and Book Sellers Association, the organiser of the fair.

Talking to the media, the organisation said poet Nalinidhar Bhattacharjya would inaugurate the fair at 1pm tomorrow. Assam education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and consul general of Italy, Cesare Bieller, will attend as guests.

The fair has been dedicated to academicians Kamaleswar Bora, former vice-chancellor of Dibrugarh University, and Deba Prasad Baruah, former vice-chancellor of Gauhati University.

The organisers will make a 3,000 square feet portrait of litterateur Lakshminath Bezbaroa and singer Bhupen Hazarika at the fair ground by taking palm impressions of visitors. Writer Homen Borgohain will inaugurate the programme tomorrow at 11.30am. “This has been planned as a gesture of respect to the two great personalities. After the book fair gets over, the painting will be preserved,” said Barman.

Every day, different publishing houses from across the state will release books and various schools and colleges will perform cultural programmes.

This year, the book fair ground has been designed by IIT Guwahati to facilitate easy accessibility to the visitors. “Earlier, there had been complaints from publishers that some corners of the fair was not convenient for visitors. That is why we approached IIT Guwahati to make a design of the fair ground,” said Barman.

Among others, the All India Radio will also put up a stall where visitors will see the equipment used by it. “In a stall one will be able to have a fair idea on how the AIR functions. This has been planned to attract the new generation to radio,” said Nayan Prasad, an official of the AIR.

The fair will be open from 11am to 8pm. Students will be given free entry provided they produce their identity cards.

From December 29 to 31, the book fair will celebrate 100 years of Indian cinema by holding a three-day symposium on “My Literature, My Film”, where several film personalities will take part. “Celebrations of 100 years of Indian cinema will be the focal theme of the fair,” said Barman.

The organisers said they would hold a lucky draw on entry tickets and the first prize will be a motorcycle.