The capital city will sport a uniform colour, much like the ‘Pink City’ of Jaipur, giving it a distinctive appearance, if a suggestion to that effect that came up at a consultation meeting as part of the city Corporation’s Smart City proposals are approved. The meeting on Sunday with representatives from the field of culture was organised as part of the preparations for submitting the local body’s Smart City proposals to the Central government.
As per this plan, all the public buildings from Kowdiar to East Fort will have to be painted in uniform colours. The discussions also centred on the need for developing the city by retaining its traditional architecture and evolving a plan focussed on its culture.
The suggestion to protect the centuries-old palaces, buildings, religious centres, ponds, and other structures while carrying out new constructions was agreed upon by the participants in the discussions. Suggestions were put forward to clean up and protect the canals by building sidewalls and walkways on both sides, and to use them for water transport. Another suggestion was to collect historical records related to the city currently in private collections and in the possession of individuals.
Heritage study centre
The Corporation had to set up a heritage study centre and also open libraries in each ward, said another participant. The heritage walks organised in the city with an aim to conserve heritage buildings should be widened to include more people. There should be more awareness of the need to conserve these buildings.
Mayor V.K. Prasanth inaugurated the consultation meeting, which was presided over by R. Satheesh Kumar, Chairperson of the city Corporation’s Town Planning Standing Committee.
Malayinkeezh Gopalakrishnan moderated the discussion. Archives Assistant Director P. Biju, Government Fine Arts College Principal A.S. Sajith, Archaeologists Beena Thomas and Chandran Pillai, and others participated.