In the coming weeks, the dirty and dreary suburban and MRTS railway stations will turn into colourful spaces with walls adorned with murals. From school students to corporates, volunteers have come forward to create murals in 20 suburban and MRTS stations as part of Daan Utsav, the festival of joy of giving, that begins next week.
Aarthi Madhusudhan of Daan Utsav said, “In light of recent incidents in railway stations, we wanted to bring about some positivity and hence the project ‘Chennai MuRail’. We wanted to make these public spaces vibrant.”
There are some more stations yet to be taken up and interested volunteers or organisation can come forward to paint them, she added. So far, work has been completed only at Chepauk station.
Namrata Ratnam of Kri Foundation said they will be painting Mandaveli and Beach MRTS stations and they have already started work on it. “We didn’t stick to any theme for these murals. They were generic designs. We plan to finish it in a week or two before the festival gets over,” she added.
Metro stations
Chennai Metro Rail will also be utilised to spread some cheer. Apart from organising free rides for poor children, the festival aims to fulfill the wishes of underprivileged children across the State. Selva Ganapathy of Aid India, an NGO, said they will keep a box in seven stations from October 2-8 where crushed papers containing a wish of a child will be written. “Commuters who wish to help can pick up one such paper, fulfill that wish and put it in back in the box. Our volunteers are in the process of collecting wishes from children now,” he said.
Volunteers will
create murals in 20 suburban and
MRTS stations
from next week
