Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation wants citizens’ stamp on city beautification plan

BHUBANESWAR: A city should look as beautiful as its residents want it to be. This is the principle based on which the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) and Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA) want to beautify the select walls of the city under Citizens Stamp, 2022-23 project.
They have invited people through BMC’s official Twitter handle to cite their choices, views and knowledge on various themes to be picked up by the artists for the city-wide beautification drive — “Paint your city”.
The BMC and BDA want the people to participate in the online survey, which contains a few questions. Streets, markets, walls below flyovers and vacant spaces will be painted based on the answers of people.
In the Citizen Stamp, 2022-23, the BMC has given a link in twitter for people to furnish their views. This is the second edition of Stamp. In 2017-18, several walls in the city were painted for a makeover in the run to Mens’ World Cup Hockey-2018. The Bhubaneswar Urban Knowledge Centre (BUKC) has conceptualised the project.
Assistant executive engineer Saroj Mohapatra, who is overseeing the project, said after the entries are received online, they will be collated and overlaps (if any) will be filtered before the idea is finalised. Some people have posted that a prominent location in the city should have a wall painting portraying the Paika rebellion. “There are interesting themes but the scrutiny committee will decide if it can be implemented,” he told TOI.
He said after November 15 the painting work will be taken up and by December-end it will be completed. “Artists will be selected soon. We will expedite the work so as to complete it within the targeted time,” Mohapatra added.
The place-specific city makeover work is also set to kick off soon. Plans have been made by the BUKC. The BDA and BMC engineering wings have been allotted tasks to be taken up by them so that work is completed within the stipulated time. As part of makeover, there will be designer shrubbery and seasonal trees planted across naked medians (dividers of roads).