The Coimbatore Corporation organised a photo exhibition and heritage walk here on Wednesday to mark the 210th year of formation of Coimbatore as district headquarters.
The exhibition had 40 photographs of heritage buildings, important places in the city and the great men the city had seen and 30 paintings of heritage buildings and places in the city.
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It was inaugurated by Archana Patnaik, the District Collector, in the presence of A.K. Viswanathan, City Police Commissioner, and K. Vijayakarthikeyan, Corporation Commissioner. The event was supported by non-government organisations Siruthuli, Residents' Awareness Association of Coimbatore, INTACH, TASK and Jama’at-e-Islami Hind.
The photographs were taken from the collections of S.M. Sriramulu Naidu, the founder of Pakshiraja Studios, K. Maruthachalam, Managing Director of Photo Centre, G.K. Sundaram, former Chairman of Lakshmi Mills, and Rajesh Govindarajulu, Managing Director of Hiranmayi Jewelers. The paintings were from the Vanavarayar Foundation.
The heritage walk started from the corporation office and covered historic buildings like the house of Rathnasabapathy Mudaliar, a former municipal chairperson, the clock tower, St. Michael's Cathedral, Moses Gnanabaranam Eye Hospital and the cinema Theatre Delite.
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The corporation school students and members of the public participated in the walk.
ExplainedHistorian C.R. Elangovan, who has authored eight books on Coimbatore, explained the historic importance of each building to the people.
Given the declining interest in books, such events have become necessary to encourage youngsters to learn the heritage of the city, he said and added that the next time, though, it should be organised on a bigger scale.