A pathway leading to the Garden Road from the farmers’ market in Charring Cross, which had become a hotspot for crime and a prime spot for tipplers to congregate after dark, is all set to get a new lease of life after a group of students from Mcgan’s Ooty School of Architecture took it upon themselves to clean up the path.
So far, the students have painted most of the wall on one side of the pathway, with murals depicting messages about deforestation, alcoholism, road safety and wildlife.
Before they began the work, the entire stretch was prone to becoming waterlogged as pipes dumped along the route had blocked water from draining into the Kodappamund Channel, a portion of which runs parallel to the pathway. After holding discussions with the district collector, they managed to get the pipes removed and used the help of the Udhagamandalam Municipality to clean the debris from the channel and also got them to start work on getting the toilets along the stretch in working condition once again.
“After the pipes were removed, the water began draining properly and we could set about cleaning the area,” said Shafiyur Rahman, a third year student who came up with the idea to clean the pathway. He said that he had chosen to clean this particular stretch as he was one of hundreds of people who used it regularly, and said that at night, the area becomes very unsafe as there are very few street lights and because many people use the stretch, because of its isolation, to consume alcohol.
“We have asked the district administration to fix some lights along the stretch,” added Rahman, who also felt that the installation of CCTV cameras and the dispatch of a few police patrols will make the area much safer.
Rahman and his friends have plans to make sure that the area is kept clean. They want to put up a chain-link fence to prevent people throwing garbage and trash into the channel while they also want to set up a vertical garden using the chain-link fence as a support structure. They say that if the garden is put up, then the stench from the channel will diminish.
They do not have the money or the resources to put up the fence and have appealed to NGOs and to the public to help them with funds. “I have spent more than Rs. 10,000 from my own pocket already, and need more funds to get the remaining work done,” said Rahman.
