PUDUKOTTAI
Officials at the Ponnamaravathi panchayat have utilised the lockdown period to give a makeover to the bus stop in the town, and provide new facilities when bus services begin to ply again. A local artist has been roped in to paint the walls of the bus stand to prevent pasting of posters and to public urination.
The bus stand, frequented by people from nearby villages to buy or sell goods, has been shut since the Tamil Nadu government announced the suspension of bus services. The officials decided to utilise the time to beautify the otherwise rarely empty bus stand. “When notices and posters were pasted, people used to spit or urinate on them. Now, with these paintings, we hope that they will think many times over before defacing the walls,” says V. Dhanushkodi, Executive Engineer, Ponnamaravathi.
As many as 30 individual pictures are being painted on nearly 2,900 square feet of space, said V. Perumal, the artist who has been roped in to paint the murals on the wall.
“I reached out to at least 10 of my artist friends who have been struggling to make a living during the lockdown and involved them in this work. Together, we began the work last week and the entire task will be completed within four or five days,” he said.
Mr. Perumal was approached by the Executive Engineer to paint COVID-19 awareness messages in the town and after seeing his work, offered the walls for painting.
The paintings revolve around the broad themes of Tamil culture, tradition, games and agriculture, Mr. Dhanushkodi said. “An estimate of ₹ 1.5 lakh was drawn up and an owner of a furniture store in the town bore the entire cost of the work,” he said.
Mr. Dhanushkodi also plans to install about 40 mobile phone charging terminals and mineral water purifiers at the bus stand. “The people travel here to sell vegetables, work in markets and transport goods. For them, there is no place to charge their phones until the end of the day. For their benefit, we are installing mobile charging points,” he said.
