Amar Ekushey Boi Mela (Book Fair) ends today, just two days before its closure schedule, due to the worsening Covid-19 situation in the country.
The decision was taken to close the fair two days earlier as the government is going to enforce a week-long strict lockdown across the country starting from April 14, aimed at curbing the Covid-19 transmission.
The book fair that started on March 18 amid the resurgence of Covid-19 and was scheduled to end on April 14, failed to get its usual momentum with publishers and sellers fearing to incur huge losses in their businesses.
Although the government enforced a weeklong lockdown from April 4 it allowed the Bangla Academy to go ahead with the fair.
This year, 834 units were allocated to 540 publishing houses and organizations to facilitate sale of books and other publications.
The authorities allotted 154 units on the Bangla Academy premises to 107 organisations and 680 units in the Suhrawardy Udyan to 433 organizations.
Considering the Covid-19 social-distancing requirements, the land earmarked for this year's fair was expanded to 1,500,000 square feet.
