KOLKATA: With the Salt Lake Central Park fair ground chosen as the permanent venue for organising the annual Kolkata book fair, the state plans to further develop the infrastructure of the fair ground matching international standards.
During the closing ceremony of the book fair on Sunday night, state urban development minister Firhad Hakim said a pedestrian underpass will be set up from the car parking lot beside Unnayan Bhavan to the fair ground’s gate 5.
It has been noticed that with the huge inflow of visitors from the overflowing parking lot — which can accommodate over 800 cars — the traffic police have been facing a tough time managing pedestrian and vehicular flow at the crossroad.
“The underpass has been planned for visitors to enter the fair directly from the parking lot without the hassle of waiting and crossing the road. This will help prevent vehicular bottleneck,” said a government official. The urban development department will soon prepare designs of the proposed underpass, which will be the first in Salt Lake.
Guild officials said they will further discuss with the government authorities other plans, like setting up specific pathways inside and around the fair ground, and installing improved fire-fighting system, toilets and drinking water facilities for visitors.
“With many dignitaries from abroad coming for book fairs and other events held at this venue, we want the fair ground to have infrastructure of international standards. Some permanent arrangements, like a police and fire control room, are needed. We will discuss this with the minister,” said Publishers and Booksellers Guild president Sudhangshu Sekhar Dey.
The authorities will also discuss whether more space can be carved out, extending the fair ground. Officials said the size of many book stalls were reduced this time to create more space, but there was hardly any free area due to the huge crowd, especially during the weekends.
Though the fair ground is to be christened ‘Boi Mela Prangan’, all kinds of fairs will be organised there, government and civic officials said. “We have been providing all basic civic amenities and will continue to cooperate. Not only the book fair, all kinds of fairs will be held at this venue,” said Bidhannagar mayor Krishna Chakraborty.
