Kolkata: The failure to hold this year's book fair may be haunting Kolkata, but the city of poets and writers has thrown its hat in the ring for the World City of Literature title bestowed by Unesco.

At a hotel this week, the city's intelligentsia gathered under the auspices of the British Council to formally launch its bid for Unesco's coveted World City of Literature title.

Scotland's capital Edinburgh is the first, and till date, the only city designated by Unesco as a World City of Literature under its Creative Cities Network programme.

British Council Scotland, which played a key role in securing the bid for Edinburgh in 2004, initiated a dialogue with British Council (East India) and this set in motion a complex process that has resulted in putting together of the bid.

Sujata Sen, director of British Council East India, Wednesday presented to the citizens of Kolkata the bid document she hoped will secure the title of World City of Literature from UNESCO.

It was released in the presence of the city's renowned literary personalities like Nabarun Bhattacharya, Nabaneeta Dev Sen, Bani Basu, Swapan Chakravorty and Roy Cross, director British Council Scotland and a trustee of Edinburgh World City of Literature Trust.

Sujata Sen described the bid document "as a truly collaborative and consultative process that welds together a wealth of diverse inputs from custodians of Kolkata's literary heritage and present prosperity, and all of the city's stakeholders".