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.