VIJAYAWADA: So what’s the first thing you notice in Vijayawada these days? Several walls across Eluru Road and Mahatma Gandhi Road adorned with murals to create pleasant ambience for the residents.
Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) launched the city beautification project in a bid to promote the ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiative. Here, one should not forget the hard work and efforts of the artists who adorn the walls along bus shelters, post offices and hospitals with murals.
Armed with scraping tools, K Narasa Raju, an artist who has been adorning murals on the walls near BRTS Road, told TNIE that the initiative launched by the VMC has been providing livelihood for several traditional artists. ‘’There was awareness among the citizens who were supporting the VMC initiative by not sticking posters on the walls sculptured with paintings. Each citizen should do his bit,’’ Raju said.
‘’Several of the murals are designed in the computer itself first and later adorn the city walls,’’ said B Veerraju, an artist from Visakhapatnam. In the first phase, the civic body of Vijayawada city has entrusted the task of adorning the walls in 10 kilometers radius of the city. Majority of the people passing through the walls are appreciating our works and also posing for pictures and selfies, he said.
When contacted, VMC commissioner J Nivas said that the concept was mooted to make Vijayawada a poster-free city. In this regard, the corporation has roped traditional artists from Visakhapatnam and other parts of the State and entrusted them the task of creating murals on the city walls, which earlier were filled up with posters and banners.
The concept has been evoking good response from the residents and several of them are appealing to the corporation to replicate the same kind of murals in their respective housing colonies and localities. As of now, the project has been progressing at a brisk pace along major roads like Eluru Road, MG Road, BRTS Road and Canal Road. Steps will be initiated to replicate the same on the other roads passing through the city, Nivas added.