COIMBATORE: Residents and tourists would soon be slowing down to gaze at beautiful sculptures installed at prominent places in the city. These sculptures would be different with a twist -- they would be made from automobile scraps.
In order to make this idea into reality, the Coimbatore City Municipal Corporation (CCMC) is in talks with an Andhra Pradesh-based professor-cum-artist for converting automobile metal scrap into sculptures. This initiative was mooted after the civic body observed an abundance of automobile scrap lying idle behind the Corporation's main office on Big Bazaar Street.
About the initiative, CCMC Commissioner Raja Gopal Sunkara said they have got in touch with Srinivas Padakandla, the head of the Fine Arts department in the University College of Architecture and Planning in Acharya Nagarjuna University at Guntur.
Srinivasa is known for turning metal waste into beautiful sculptures and he has created such structures in Chennai and Tirunelveli, said the commissioner.
Raja Gopal Sunkara added, "The artist had told us he could use only the automobile scrap which we have on our premises. We either have to condemn and auction it or take steps to use it."
The commissioner said they have plans to make an elephant sculpture out of metal scrap as the Coimbatore district's symbol is an elephant. These metal sculptures will be installed in a few prominent junctions in the city to attract onlookers, he pointed out.
It is to be noted that the Greater Chennai Corporation recently installed metal art sculptures of a farmer, Jallikattu bull, a classical dancer, a mridangam player, a tortoise, a crab, a prawn, a leopard, and a deer.