Only few days are left before the inauguration of the 46th International Kolkata Book Fair. The fair will be inaugurated on 30 January 2023 at 2 pm at the Boimela Prangan, Salt Lake, by our Hon’ble Chief Minister Smt. Mamata Banerjee, in presence of Ms Maria Jose Galvez Salvador, Director-General of Books and Promotion of Reading, Spanish Ministry of Culture & Sports, Shri Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay, eminent author of Bengal along with other eminent authors and dignitaries.
The 46th International Kolkata Book Fair will be special in many ways. The Fair is going to be bigger by number of stalls, convenient by direct metro connection from Sealdah station.
The Publishers and Book Sellers Guild, organising body of the Kolkata Book Fair shared minute deals in press conference on Friday.
The following are the highlights of this year’s International Kolkata Book Fair:
There will be around 700 stalls and 200 Little Magazines. This year we have allotted stalls to many more new small and medium publishers at the Book Fair.
There will be nine entry and exit gates in the IKBF 2023 for the easy movement of the visitors. One of the gates will be the replica of Toledo Gate of Spain. Among the other gates, there will be Biswa Bangla Gate & Najrul’s Agnibina Gate.
Big two halls of the Book Fair having mainly the English publications have been named after Michael Madhusudan Dutt and Pyaricharan Sarkar, commemorating their bicentenary birth year. The Little Magazine Pavilions will be named after author-editor Ramapada Chowdhury to observe his birth centenary.
There will be a Press Corner and two Mukta Mancha (Open stage) named after Mrinal Sen and Tarun Mazumdar. The Children’s Pavilion will be based on the characters of Abol Tabol, celebrating 100 years of its publication.
For the convenience of booklovers, Transport Department, Government of West Bengal has assured guild to provide additional bus services. This year for the first time book fair will have direct Metro connection from Sealdah railway station to Book Fair metro stations namely Central Park & Karunamoyee. With the help of Bidhannagar Police, the auto fare of various destinations will also be fixed for the Book Fair.
Forest Department, Government of West Bengal has come forward to make the Book Fair green and eco friendly.
A special medical assistance service with ambulance and well equipped doctors will be available at IKBF 2023.
International Kolkata Book Fair 2023 android app will available in play store very soon to locate any stall in the fair.
There will be wifi zones in Kolkata Book Fair 2023. This will help in doing online payment while purchasing books at fair
“Buy books and win a Book Library” – As a commitment to the society, like previous years Guild has decided to disseminate the opportunity to more and more book lovers. The ‘Book Bumper Library lottery’ will be organised and a good number of winners will win Book Gift Coupon of Rs 25,000/- each.
A special ‘CESC Sristi Samman’ will be awarded this year to Shri Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay.
“We are deeply indebted to State Bank of India – our official Banker for providing full banking facilities, ATM and E-services in the Fair Ground”, said Mr Tridib Kumar Chatterjee, General Secretary of the Publishers & Booksellers Guild.
“We are also indebted to ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company – our Official Insurer. We also acknowledge great support from National Jute Board as our Green partner”, said Mr Sudhangshu Sekhar Dey, President of Guild.
The IKBF will also have virtual live presence through the website and social media pages of the Book Fair. Those who are staying abroad, they can watch the Book Fair along with its different programs online.
Another major attraction of the International Kolkata Book Fair that we all look forward to, will be the 9th edition of the Kolkata Literature Festival which will be held for three days inside the SBI auditorium, from 9 to 11 February 2023.