Shopping festival starts in Kolkata

Kolkata, Dec 25 (IANS) With the aim of emulating shopping festivals in Dubai and Singapore, the Great Kolkata Shopping Festival has got off to a glittering start.

Inaugurating the festival here Wednesday evening, West Bengal Tourism Minister Manabendra Mukherjee said: 'This is the first time any such festival is happening in India. We want to take it up to the scale of Dubai or Singapore Shopping Festival'.

The festival will continue till Jan 22, 2009.

'Since it is the first time, we are taking it as an experimental case and will review everything to make it much better in the future,' Mukherjee said.

'This year, we are more interested in the reaction of local people and people of other states; from next year we will concentrate on foreigners.'

Around 3,000 retailers are participating in the shopping festival. It is expected to generate retail sales of about Rs.1 billion.

'This festival has been conceptualised with a view to changing the perception of Kolkata and also to demonstrate the market potential of the city and the state. Both tourism and retail will benefit from this endeavour,' Mukherjee added.