E-Paper
Mayor’s mantra for city: Look good, feel good
Mayor Shubha Raul has taken on a project to spruce up every traffic island in Mumbai with sculptures representing common citizens of the respective areas, reports Sayli Udas Mankikar.
Mayor Shubha Raul has taken on a project to spruce up every traffic island in Mumbai with sculptures representing common citizens of the respective areas.
The project has kicked off with a sculpture of a kavadvala, vegetable vendor, placed at the traffic signal outside Plaza cinema at Dadar. A sculpture of a Maharashtrian woman watering a tulsi plant has been placed at the Hindu Colony signal. Six more such sculptures are planned across the city.
“It’s all about the ‘look good’ agenda that our party has taken up. I decided to spruce up traffic islands with a local flavour and a message,” said Raul, who appealed to all Shiv Sena corporators to take up the project in their wards.
Last month, Raul had expressed keenness to build something “spectacular” at a 22- acre area at the 226-acre Mahalaxmi Racecourse. She floated the idea of a dolphin park or an open space along the lines of Central Park in New York.
Raul felt greened traffic islands are difficult to maintain and get encroached upon. “A sculpture is easy to maintain and is also economical — Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 per sculpture,” she said.
Two other sculptures are ready to be unveiled — a gun and a hat with a plaque bearing the words ‘Shahid Salaam’ at the traffic island across from Sena Bhavan at Dadar and a kalash with a coconut and mango leaves near Portuguese church.
Other sculptures in the works are of a dabbawala to be put up at Parel, a Koli couple at Worli, a Parsi couple at Five Gardens and a woman with a puja thali near a Shiva temple at Borivli.
