The International Kolkata Book Fair 2021 can be organised during the period of December-January if the pandemic situation eases, a top official of the Publishers and Booksellers Guild said on Tuesday.

The fair could not be organised on the originally scheduled time in January end and then in mid-July due to the prevailing COVID-19 situation at first and the raging second wave in April-May, he said. "We can only hope if it can be held in December 2021-January 2022 but there are many ifs and buts. No one knows how the pandemic will actually behave then," said Guild President Tridib Chatterjee.

The fair can be organised if the situation is conducive in terms of the pandemic easing its grip and experts giving the go-ahead, he said. "We had chalked the organisational part for several months since early this year but the covid situation was the deterrent. We will only require a month's time to execute the entire thing whenever the schedule is decided. Going by last year's pandemic trend, we hope the situation could be better during the month of December-January. But we are keeping fingers crossed," he added.

"Also there is no harm if two year's fair can be held on a single year clubbing both, if it cannot take place in December then in first half of 2022," he added. Asked if the fair could be held on a miniature scale like the district fairs of Guild and the February mini fair at EDF park in Jadavpur, another Guild official Apu Dey said "since all the publishers and booksellers have been hit hard, we would take everyone along whenever the fair takes place".

According to one estimate around 580 publishers and booksellers take part in the fair, stated to be the biggest in the world in terms of footfall. Countries like UK, Bangladesh, Russia are regular participants in the book fair.