Kolkata, 27 January (H.S.): Approximately 1.4 million people have visited the 49th International Kolkata Book Fair in the first four days since its inauguration. The organizers provided this information on Tuesday. Considered Asia's largest literary event, the book fair was inaugurated by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on January 22. The fair will conclude on February 3.

According to Tridib Chatterjee, General Secretary of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild, approximately four lakh book lovers visited the fair on Monday, a public holiday for Republic Day. A similar number of people had visited the book fair the previous day, Sunday.

He said that around 3.5 lakh people attended the fair on January 24, while approximately 2.5 lakh people were present the day before – a holiday for Saraswati Puja.

Tridib Chatterjee said, Looking at the response so far, we are very hopeful that the Kolkata Book Fair 2026 will surpass the previous total visitor count of 27 lakh.

According to the organizers, due to the overwhelming participation of readers and publishers, this year's book fair has been running in an enthusiastic atmosphere right from the start.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Priyanka Pandey