The city’s favourite fair is back in Salt Lake. For the second consecutive year, the International Kolkata Book Fair has been anchored at Central Park. The fair is on till February 11, from noon to 9pm and entry is free. But besides books, here are a few other sights that may catch your eye-

Fire bikes

You're sure to hear a hooter inside the fair and when you turn around you will see a red beacon glowing too. But the source will be — not a VIP’s car but — a bike.

The fire department has four fire engines deployed around the park and 10 ‘fire bikes’ too. Like the engines, the Enfield bikes are bright red in colour. It has a driver and pillion and on both sides carry two fire extinguishers of 10l capacity each.

“Some lanes of the fair are too narrow for fire engines to enter. In case of a fire, water hoses will be drawn from wherever they can be parked. But bikes can roam the entire fair,” explained Jalaludin Golder of Bidhannagar fire station in Sector V. He now sits at the fire department’s control room at the fair.

The bikes are doing the rounds the whole day, and in case of a fire the pillion rider would inform the head office over walkie talkie, yank out the extinguisher and get to work.

“These bikes are about two years old and have been brought to the fair from different fire stations of the state,” says Golder. “We have a staff strength of 60 fire fighters during fair hours and a smaller army stays back even at night.”

Golder agrees that the bikes are drawing a lot of admirers. “Everyone is clicking pictures of it and sometimes we are allowing children to sit on them too,” he smiled.

Overhead bridge

During the book fair last year, visitors crossing the road outside were to do so using the overhead bridges built by the Metro. But this year the bridges are out of bounds.

“The footbridges are clean and beautiful and I had even clicked pictures inside them last year. But this time I was disappointed to see them shut,” said Sagarika Halder, who had come from Dunlop.

Authorities said that unlike last year, this time the Metro interiors are almost complete. “Letting visitors in at this hour would risk damage before the opening that is not far away,” said an official.

Traffic diversion

Traffic is smooth despite the rush at the fair. “In fact it’s better than last year,” says Pintu Sarkar, an autorickshaw driver on the Karunamoyee-Ultadanga route. “Last year we had to disembark passengers at Tank 9 and visitors had to walk all the way to the fair. But this year we are being allowed to come up to Karunamoyee and take a U-turn. This way passenger count has gone up by 50 per cent.” Autos however have been charging arbitrary and exorbitant fares late in the evening.

But autos and rickshaws are not allowed to ply between Karunamoyee and Mayukh Bhavan, under the Metro viaduct. “Buses are being allowed to ply on this stretch so long as it’s not too crowded,” said a policeman on traffic duty at Karunamoyee on Monday. “But on Sunday evening we had diverted them.”

Residents are not too hassled. “I’m having to walk two minutes more to catch my bus when it’s getting diverted but there are many more ‘book fair special’ buses to latch on to now,” said a resident of CK Block.

Hawkers

Despite the pre-book fair clean sweep, a few hawkers hover outside anyway. “Times are tough,” says Lakhwinder Kumar Sahni, who sells bhel puri and who had a narrow escape last Friday.

“On Friday, the cops came and confiscated our ware. I escaped but the other hawkers got picked up. They had to pay Rs 300 to walk free and even then lost their wares. It wasn’t like this when the fair took place opposite Science City. The cops would tell us ‘khete khao’. In Salt Lake, the cops are heartless,” says the hawker from Dharamtala.

The few chaat, ice cream and candyfloss sellers on the footpath are living out of a suitcase so they can flee at the first sign of a raid.

Parking

Three parking lots have been assigned for the fair. The first and the largest is opposite the venue, next to the HSBC office. This one holds 800 cars and 300 bikes.

“This park is used on weekdays but the crowd spills over on weekends. For that we have two more spaces — a 150-car plot on this same stretch and a 100-car plot near Tank 9,” says parking-in-charge Soumen Sardar. “About 15 of us are manning the large plot.”

Fire-fighting ball Brinda Sarkar

The fire bike. Brinda Sarkar

Fire-fighting ball

The state fire and emergency services has a stall, near the Bangladesh pavilion, and on display is a fire bike and other hi-tech fire-fighting equipment. One such is the fire extinguishing ball. “This ball fits in a palm and weighs just 1.5kg. In case of a fire we are to throw it in. If exposed to 70° C for three to five seconds, it’ll explode. The dry chemicals inside it will blanket 100sqm around it and douse the fire,” explained Jayanta Saha, sub-officer of the department. They also demonstrated a search and rescue camera, that looks like a selfie stick to the lay man. In case of a fire, firemen can extend the stick up to 9ft. The end of the stick has a camera that will relay images and sounds to those holding the base of the stick. “It will help us check for any victims stuck inside and also spot the source of the fire,” said Saha.

Book Fair specials parked outside the venue. Brinda Sarkar

Shutters down at an overhead bridge entrance. Brinda Sarkar