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Look, a flock of birds over Chandigarh’s Matka Chowk
Project is the brainchild of businessperson, media entrepreneur, philanthropist and the first CEO of the Punjab CSR Authority, Sandeep Goyal, who has also funded it
What’s murmuration? It’s a phenomenon resulting from a large group of birds, usually starlings, flying in intricately coordinated patterns across the skies. And now it will be recreated at Matka Chowk, an art installation of birds, in perpetual motion, as the rotary near the Government Museum and Sector 17 gets a revamp, complete with fancy lighting, landscaping and fountains.
Beautification plans for the chowk were sanctioned last year by the UT administration with work scheduled to start in February this year before the Covid-19 pandemic delayed things.
The project, which has restarted, is likely to be completed in a couple of weeks.
The theme of the flock of birds centres around murmuration. “Murmurations at Chandigarh visualises the relationship between a group and the individual by mimicking a swarm of migratory birds. The artwork poetically illustrates how we, as humans, strive to live autonomously within societies defined by rules and conventions,” explains Sandeep Goyal, the man behind the beautification drive.
A businessperson, media entrepreneur, philanthropist and the first CEO of the Punjab CSR Authority, Goyal took over the maintenance work of the chowk from the Chandigarh Housing Board (CHB) around two-and-a-half years back.
Proposing a creative uplift to the chowk, Goyal’s designs were forwarded by the CHB to the UT urban planning department, which submitted these to the Chandigarh Heritage Conservation Committee (CHCC). After nearly 18 months and several design tweaks later the CHCC cleared it.
Final approvals came from the administration in September for the project that’s entirely funded by Goyal.
“360 birds and rods have been installed. The landscaping remains to be done. The water body around the Matka (installation at the chowk) will be repaired and fountain will be changed. Also, the Matka will be refurbished and synchronised with the rest of the design,” said Goyal.
Meanwhile, the overhauling of the rotary has been criticised from some quarters as going against the “heritage” of the city.
