Extreme-Makeover! Ramakrishna Mission Beautifies Kottara-Chowki Flyover area with Art Work
Mangaluru: What once looked a dirty area with garbage scattered all over, illegal street vendors and stray dogs menace, and which also presented an eyesore of movie/entertainment posters has been turned into a beautiful area, within a span of 15 days, as part of Ramakrishna Mission’s Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan-thanks to the efforts put in by Ramakrishna Mission in giving a extreme-makeover to the Kottara-Chowki Flyover area- and the project was inaugurated on 2 October on the 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, and also being the culmination of the Mission’s Swacch Mangaluru Abhiyan that started on February 2, 2015.
In the initial days of the Abhiyan, the Mission had cleared the pillars of film posters and other material before getting them painted with artworks in November 2016. Now the Pillars with beautiful art work and interlock-clad ground spruce up the Kottara-Chowki flyover vicinity. Not only the 16 pillars of the flyover, part of B.C. Road-Surathakl Port Connectivity Project on National Highway 66 were painted with beautiful art works but also the area beneath the flyover that had become a dumping ground for debris and waste was cleared and interlock tiles were fixed on the 32,000 sq ft space available there.
The interlock-clad space between one of the carriageways of the NH and the service road are also fitted with mushroom-shaped concrete benches to facilitate people to relax. And the man behind this beautiful art is Vikram Shetty of Aditatva Arts and team from the City, who beautified the pillars with paintings that depict the rich cultural heritage of the coastal area, including Kambala and fishing, and also messages of cleanliness. The team had also painted many walls in the City with traditional images in the past.
With MRPL bearing the cost of this project of about Rs 35 lakhs, the General Manager of MRPL B H V Prasad got the honors to inaugurate the beautified flyover area, in the presence of Belur Ramakrishna Mutt and Mission’s vice-president Swami Gauthamanandaji, Mangaluru Ramakrishna Mutt president Swami Jitakamanandaji, Swatch Mangaluru convener Swami Ekagamyanandaji and others. Prasad praising the work of Ramakrishna Mission on Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan which started five years ago, said that MRPL will shortly start a campaign agaisnt single use plastic, with an eye on promoting alternatives. Abhiyan core team member Dilraj Alva took up the responsibility of getting the tiles fixed with the work being done day and night as they did not much time.
While Mangaluru North MLA Y. Bharath Shetty urged the Mission to take up another mission educating people on waste segregation, the former Mayor M. Sashidhar Hegde said that the Mission has shown Mangaluru City Corporation the way to handle solid waste. The former MLC Ganesh Karnik, another core member of the Abhiyan, was also present.
