Online Desk:

Preparation for the Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2024 is going on in full swing on the Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises.

The month-long book fair will begin on its traditional date of the first day of February. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is expected to inaugurate the fair.

While visiting the fair venue on Sunday, workers were seen very busy with their work to set up stalls and pavilions on Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy premises. The workers said that almost 60% of the work has been completed so far.

“We are working from morning to evening. Hopefully the work will be finished on time,” the workers said.

The publishers are expecting more visitors and sales this year than the previous years as the Dhaka University Metro Station opened.

ANM Mizanur Rahman Patwary, proprietor of Mizan Publishers, said, “Before, people used to come to the fair less due to transportation problems. People had to walk one kilometrefrom DoelChattar to come to the fair. Now visitors can enter the fair by exiting the metro station. As a result, people can easily come to the fair.”

He also said that the overall preparation for the fair is good, and more than 100 books are going to hit the book fair from their publishing house.

The organisers said that stall allotment for old and newly enlisted publications will be done through the digital lottery system on Tuesday.

Besides the enlisted 601 organisations, some 70 new publications have applied to get stall allocations in response to the notice.

However, 21 new publications have been selected so far, while the rest are in the queue.

The main stage of the fair will be on the Bangla Academy premises, while book unwrapping and ‘LekhakBolchi’ stages will be set up on the Suhrawardi Udyan premises, like in previous years.

Besides, ‘ShishuChattar’ has also been set up in the Sadhu Shanga area beside the Ramna Kali Temple.

Dr KM Muzahidul Islam, Bangla Academy director and member secretary of the fair organising committee, told the media that most of the preparatory work has already been completed on Bangla Academy and Suhrawardy Udyan premises.

He also said that the Bangla Academy is conducting the entire work of the fair alone to avoid any criticism, as some event management companies were involved in the fair arrangement in the previous years and faced some criticism.