Metro stations to double as guides to city

Heritage body INTACH has joined hands with the Metro Corporation to come up with informative plaques and murals at various metro stations about heritage sites near that station, reports Nivedita Khandekar.

Heritage body INTACH has joined hands with the Metro Corporation to come up with informative plaques and murals at various metro stations about heritage sites near that station.

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Members of the Indian National Trust for Art, Culture and Heritage (INTACH) feel the move can give a boost to the number of people visiting heritage sites as the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spreads its network in the national capital region.

For instance, Jor Bagh station will have information on display for nearby Safdarjung Tomb and Lodhi Garden.

“INTACH's member Rajiv Mathur, a former Member (Traffic) with the Indian Railways, historian Swapna Liddle and Delhi Metro's chief architect Tripta Khurana are working in tandem to evolve designs for the mural or the kind of architecture that would be used for the purpose," sources said.

The mural and the plaque would carry information nearest monument, gardens and would be strategically placed either on platforms and/or near the ticketing areas.

The plaques and the murals would come up first on stations on the under-construction Central Secretariate-Gurgaon line and the one being extended to NOIDA, sources said adding, work at the existing stations would be taken up only after that. The idea can be traced back to similar boards on nondescript stations on the Indian Railways network, which tell us "Alight here to reach so-and-so ancient temple town." The aim is to inform people, who may not be aware of the existence of a heritage monument nearby.