Summary
The website of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild will have all kiosks listed from where books can be bought
All live and delayed live updates will be available on the social media handles of the Book Fair
The 45th International Kolkata Book Fair will be held from January 31, 2022 till February 13, 2022. The big event will be returning after a gap of a year due to the pandemic. To curb overcrowding, the Publishers and Booksellers Guild has adopted quite a few measures. One of them is taking the book fair online where all events and programmes will be streamed live. Even all kiosks will be listed on the guild portal for people to buy books, even those who live outside the city. This has been done to ensure that no one misses the experience of this event.
Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, general secretary of the Guild, said, “This time the book fair is going to be one of a kind. Something one probably has not experienced before. One of the main things would be holding it both online and offline. Booklovers will be able to get hands on their favourite books through the portal and watch everything online from the comfort of their homes.”
The 8th Kolkata Literature Festival will be held as usual. The theme country for the upcoming Book Fair is Bangladesh where the festival will celebrate the centenary birth year of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and 50th independence of Bangladesh. The 125th birth year of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, birth centenary of Satyajit Ray and 75th Indian Independence will also be celebrated.
The decision of taking the book fair online has been made to avoid overcrowding in the stalls as well because given the current Covid-19 protocols etc, social-distancing is a must.
The kiosks will be constructed in a way so that it is an open structure rather than an enclosed place. The fairground will have ample open space for visitors to move freely.
The guild is also going to introduce free e-passes online to avoid rush. Entry will be only allowed for individuals wearing masks and sanitisers will be installed at various entry points. “We will strictly follow a “no mask no entry” rule at the fair. All other COVID-19 protocols set by the West Bengal Government will be adhered to,” added Chatterjee.
Last updated on 13 Nov 2021
