In 6 days, Kolkata Book Fair records footfall of 15L, jump in sales by 10%

kolkata: In The 46th International Kolkata Book Fair has attracted a footfall of nearly 15 lakh and 10 per cent growth in sales than the last year in the first six days, said Sudhangshu Sekhar Dey, president, Publishers & Booksellers Guild on Monday.

“In six days, Kolkata Book Fair saw an overwhelming response and a footfall of more than 15 lakh,” said Tridib Chatterjee, general secretary of the Guild. Dey said the first Sunday of the fair saw a record turnout of nearly 5 lakh. The organisers also sounded happy with the overall sales figure of the event till now.

“There’s been a 10 per cent increase in sales as compared to last year. We saw that the sales have improved after the book fair shifted from Maidan, Milan Mela to Central Park in Salt Lake,” said Chatterjee.

The publishers are also happy with the sales so far. Tania Kumar of Abhijaan Publishers said: “The weekend was overcrowded and we recorded good sales.” Same sentiments were echoed by Anil Acharya of Anustup Prakashani. “A huge number of book lovers turned out on Sunday, and this year, there’s an increasing tendency among people to buy books. This is a good sign,” he said.

However, the organisers said the mobile network and digital payment are persisting issues at the fair. The Guild already had a word with the network providers on this matter. “We speak about digital India but the mobile network is poor in the area and we are working on it,” said Chatterjee. The Guild also had a word

with fire minister Sujit Bose regarding the use of fire hydrants to reduce the dust on the ground.

On Tuesday, Mayor Firhad Hakim will be at the fair to launch a new book on the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.