🖊️Sohini Ganguly
IKBF 2025 sets a record of Rs. 25 Crores sales and 2.7 million visitations on the concluding day of the 12 day book fair.
Tridip Kr. Chatterjee, President, Publishers & Booksellers Guild hosted the Closing Ceremony of the Fair on 9th February, in presence of dignitaries like Bratya Basu, West Bengal Education minister; Pracheta Gupta, Author, Aroop Biswas, West Bengal Sports & Youth Affairs minister; and many others who played a huge role in making the 48th IKBF a huge success. The last moments of the fair were taken to share the success the fair had once again achieved continuing the streak since its foundation in 1976.
Having set a record of 2.9 million visitations and Rs. 27 Crore worth sales in 2024 over the 14 days of the Fair, Mr. Chatterjee shared, “If you take into account these factors about the fair having two lesser days, the 12 day figure is an all time high.”
Present government officials like Bratya Basu, Aroop Biswas, Krishna Chakraborty expressed their inherent pride and joy about what they considered Kolkata’s second Durga Puja.
Mentioning the Frankfurt Fair and Germany, this year's focal theme, Bratya Basu commented that Johannes Gutenberg’s invention of Printing Press is, according to him, the best invention in history highlighting the importance of books. “Till this date every student is hooked to the smell of newly printed books,” added Aroop Biswas, complementing IKBF’s enthusiastic book loving visitors.
The conclusion of IKBF 2025, having arrived so soon, brought almost half the city to Boi Mela Prangan, eager to savor their last taste of India’s biggest Book Fair for the year.
As the clock struck 9, amidst a fading symphony of chaos, IKBF 2025 came to an end with echoes of the closing bell.
