Besides widened footpaths, new street lamps and steel tree guards, the Pedestrian Plaza project at Thyagaraya Road in T. Nagar, has something new to flaunt — artworks on the compound walls of educational institutions and government departments.
For the past one month, these compound walls are being embellished with artworks, which only adds colour to the Pedestrian Plaza, project executed by the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) and Chennai Smart City Ltd under the Smart Cities Mission.
A GCC official says, “Most of these artworks are either abstract paintings or drawings with messages about water conservation or solid waste management. Artists from various forums, including Cholamandal Artists’ Village, were roped in for this project.”
The educational institutions whose compound walls have been spruced up with artworks are Holy Angels Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School and Sri Ramakrishna Mission Higher Secondary School (Main).
“The school was reopened after the quarterly holidays on October 3. It was a pleasant surprise for the students when they saw the compound wall vibrant with colours,” says Sister Xavier Mary, principal, Holy Angels school.
Ramakrishna school had already done some painting on its compound wall facing Bashyam Road. Now, the Smart City team gave a fresh coat of paint to these artworks.
“We had drawn Nilgiri tahr ( Varai Aaadu ) and emerald dove ( Maragadha Pura ), the State animal and bird of Tamil Nadu respectively. The Smart City team created an artwork on the compound wall facing Thyagaraya Road,” says M. Chitra, headmistress, Sri Ramakrishna school.
The compound walls of another institution — Kesari Higher Secondary School — on Thyagaraya Road will benefit from such an exercise soon, says the Corporation official.
Geometrical patterns and paintings pertaining to rainwater conservation adorn the walls of the Area X office of the Chennai Metropolitan Water Supply & Sewerage Board and R4 Soundarapandianar Angadi Police Station.
