The New Indian Express 03.11.2009
Beautification drive: Sand City to wear new look
BALASORE: The Sand City of Balasore is going to don a new and colourful look.
The advertisements and posters on walls facing the main roads will soon be replaced with beautiful paintings.
Taking a cue from the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation which beautified the walls of the Capital city with paintings, Balasore Municipality has started a similar initiative.
Initially, 33 paintings have been made on the walls of Gopabandhu park near Gandhi Smruti Bhavan by the students of Balasore Art and Craft College.
“All the government walls in the town will be painted in phases. Initially, we have painted the walls of the park and the response is overwhelming,” said Sudhanshu Nayak, Executive Officer of the municipality.
The municipality has sought proposals for other areas of the town.
“We have sought proposals from the Art College to paint other streets of the city. Once we get them, the structure of funding will be decided and work will start accordingly,” the executive officer said.
Official sources said the municipality would rope in private companies and corporate houses for sponsorship.
The municipality has planned to give a new look to boundary walls of at least 10 streets.
“Altogether 33 students of our college have painted the boundary walls in a day.
The civic authorities had asked us to draw tribal paintings and as per their proposal, paintings have been made depicting the beauty of Orissa’s tribal life,” said Nikunja Das, principal of the college.
Das said the attempt of the municipality will also help the artists who are struggling to make a respectable living.
Of the 33 paintings made, three best works were adjudged by the authorities and the painters awarded.
The first award went to Manoj Kumar Sandha while the second one went to Manoranjan Jena and Radhashyam Pradhan and the third one to Chintamani Padhi.
