KOCHI: The Kerala Department of Culture and cooperative society of writers in Kerala, the organisers of Krithi International Book Fair, have set a target of `25 crore for the third edition of the book fest. The book fest, scheduled to be held at Marine Drive in Kochi from February 6 to 16, 2020, aims to sell books worth `25 crore, said Minister for Cooperatives Kadakampally Surendran here on Friday.
The government has set aside `1.5 crore in the budget for the book fair. We are planning to distribute books worth `1.5 crore free of cost to students,” the minister said while inaugurating the reception committee formation meeting of Krithi.
“Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the festival on February 6. There will be 250 stalls at the Book Festival and more than 150 leading publishers will participate. The venue will have 50,000 sq feet exhibit space and two venues having 5,000 sq feet area will be set aside for literary discussions,” he said.
Various art and cultural programmes will be organised as part of the festival. Around 75 writers including Jnanapith recipient Prathibha Ray, Bhairappa, Suva Reddy and Ramchandra Guha will attend the literary discussions.