KOLKATA: Despite being miserably pressed for cash, the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) has undertaken a major beautification plan for the city. The blueprint includes installation of decorative lights in large areas of north and central Kolkata, beautification of pavements, beautification of road medians and painting of city's parks and roads.

"In the new year, the KMC conservancy department will install 1,000 new trash bins across the city. These designer bins will be placed in front of major markets, malls, multiplexes and in front of multi-storeyed buildings. This apart, the civic body has set a January 26 deadline for completion of riverfront beautification along a 200 metre stretch on Strand Road," said mayor Sovan Chatterjee.

On Wednesday, Chatterjee held a meeting with all senior KMC officials and chalked out a comprehensive plan for the city's beautification. Chatterjee said that importance would be given to installation of decorative lights along city's major thoroughfares. This is not the first time that the KMC has planned to decorate Kolkata streets with designer lights.

In the first phase, the civic body installed decorative lights along streets such as Harish Mukherjee Road, Rashbehari Avenue, Southern Avenue, Bhowanipore and Sarat Bose Road among others. In the second phase, the KMC will take up Ultadanga Main Road, Beliaghata Main Road, CIT Road (Park Circus), Lenin Sarani, Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Road for installation of such decorative lights.

The KMC has selected the area around Nandan and Academy of Fine Arts as a special zone for beautification. The civic engineering department will create a special median on Cathedral Road and beautify it with herbs, shrubs and flowers.

While the railings at Citizens Park will don a fresh coat of blue and black, the pavement will be beautified with designer tiles, Chatterjee said. Other major city parks will be painted accordingly. The work of painting city's parks has begun with Harish Park on Harish Mukherjee Road.

Though beautification in other forms is well accepted, there are few takers for installation of decorative lights among the civic officials. KMC records testify that after the first phase of illumination of streets, a dent has been created in the civic coffer as the electricity bills shot up after such installation of fancy lights.

"With installation of second phase of decorative lights, electricity bills will shoot up by Rs 1 crore every month," said a KMC official. "When there is sufficient street light along the major thoroughfares, what is the need for installation of decorative lights," the KMC official asked.