According to Publishers and Booksellers Guild officials, despite poor infrastructure and traffic snarls at the fair venue, the sales touched nearly Rs 16 crore this year. This has led many to believe that the Milan Mela ground has the potential to become a better venue than Maidan, provided it has better infrastructural facilities than this year.

In the last book fair that was held at the Maidan, the authorities recorded sales of nearly Rs 20 crore.

“We received a very good response from book lovers. The footfall at the Maidan used to be greater than Milan Mela, but this year, only those people visited the fair who really wanted to buy books. We sold books worth Rs 80,000 to Rs 1 lakh per day,” said Samir Dey, marketing manager, Allied Publishers Private Ltd.

Although the government is making constant efforts to get a portion of the Maidan back from the Army for holding the book fair, the fate of the 34th Kolkata Book Fair depends on the verdict of the Supreme Court.

Nearly two years ago, environmental activist Subhas Dutta had filed a petition in the Calcutta High Court for restricting all fairs on the only green patch in the city. After the High Court decided to ban holding the book fair at the Maidan, the organisers had moved the Supreme Court challenging the ban.

“If the Supreme Court verdict goes against us, we will have no choice but to hold the book fair at Milan Mela,” said Tridib Chatterjee, secretary, Publishers and Booksellers Guild.