Murals on its wall make Kota rail station 3rd most beautiful

Kota railway station has bagged a national level award for being the third most beautiful railway station in the country. It is the only railway station in the state to have ranked third with Secunderabad in Telengana and Gandhidham in Gujrat.

Chandrapur and Ballarshah railway stations of Maharashtra ranked first while the second place has been shared by Madurai railway station of southern railways and Madhubani railway station of East central railways.

Divisional railway manager, Kota railway division, UC Joshi said that Rs 10 lakh award has been fixed for the first rank winners, Rs 5 lakh for second rank and Rs 3 lakh each for the third rankers.

“Kota railway station bagging the national level award of beautification is not only a matter of pride for Kota railway division but for Rajasthan and West Central railway zone,” he said.

Kota railway station has been adjudged the third most beautiful railway station under a beautification competition of the Indian railways in which a total of 62 entries from 11 railway zones had arrived.

While the Kota-Bundi style of paintings are now confined only to forts, palaces and heritage buildings, with only a handful of artists of the original art left in the region, the hand-drawn paintings of this style occupying the walls of Kota railway station is certainly a visual treat.

These wall paintings depict giant ‘Shikar’ (hunting) paintings, royal procession of erstwhile rulers, court rooms, life of nobles, paintings reflecting control Must Elephant, lovers, Raag-Raagini, Jag Mandir temple inside Kishore Sagar Lake and Wildlife in forests of Kota-Bundi region.

One of the few surviving artists of Kota-Bundi style of paintings, Mohammad Lukman (54), whose team has sketched around 20 Kota-Bundi style paintings at the Kota railway station, said that the Kota district administration has supported this primitive style of drawing.

About the uniqueness of the paintings, he said that the style dates back to 16th century, whose paintings that depict ‘hunting’ is world famous.

On being quizzed on the expenses, the additional district magistrate, administration, Kota, Sunita Daga said that a total amount of around Rs 15 lakh has been spent on the paintings to promote tourism and also conserve this art.