There is more to watch out for along the way than the recently installed Lionel Messi statue or the not-so-recent clock tower and Diego Maradona statue when driving down VIP Road from Ultadanga to the airport.
Every neighbourhood to the left now has an arched gateway to welcome entrants. Of these, the ones at Dakshindari and Kestopur were built some years ago but most of rest — Golaghata, Sreebhumi, Bangur Avenue and Dum Dum Park — have been inaugurated in end-December. The Lake Town gate is the latest to be opened, on Republic Day.
Dakshindari gate
Minister and local MLA Sujit Bose had made the announcement about the five new gates at the inauguration of Poush Parbon O Christmas Utsab in the service lane of VIP Road in the Sreebhumi locality, as reported in The Telegraph Salt Lake on December 26. He said he had allotted funds from his local area development fund for the gates. Another gate would come up in Kalindi, which he was sponsoring as well, he said.
The tender amount for the project, excluding the gates at Dakshindari and Kestopur, totals a shade over Rs 58 lakh. The amount sanctioned for the Kalindi gate is not part of this expenditure as well.
Golaghata gate
Three of the gates look to be inspired by the Jamini Roy school of painting, with Ganesh janani being a recurrent image on the glass fibre structures. “The overall idea was to project this area as a hub of Durga puja. Each of these areas has pujas that have earned a name,” said a source close to the planners, with a request for anonymity.
However, local people are questioning the need for such gates. “Such paras are dime a dozen in the city. How many gates will they build? And why does a simple local neighbourhood need such an elaborate gateway? It’s not as if one is entering a heritage zone, which draws international tourists. Even if it were deemed necessary to highlight the name of the area, a simple roadsign would have sufficed. This is a waste of tax-payers’ money,” stated a resident of Bangur Avenue.
Dum Dum Park gate
Odd & in the way
A resident of Dakshindari was upset with the narrow entry to the locality being rendered narrower with a gate. “There is no pavement. We are forced to walk on the carriageway. The narrow apology of a pavement is completely blocked on one side by two huge signages with stone slab bases, announcing the area name. It has become a sitting place for stragglers. Surely neither we, locals, nor visitors need to be welcomed thrice over within a distance of 10 feet,” said the school teacher. The gate blocks any attempt to get on the pavement on both sides.
She had issues with the choice of faux marble figures in the gate as well. “Dakshindari is an area known for pottery. How are Western-style marble-white figures relevant here?”
Local look
The new gates, being rooted in local culture, resonate better with people — in terms of both theme and look. The source close to the planners points out that the Sreebhumi gate, for instance, is 40ft wide and 22 ft high. “So our Durga thakur as well as fire tenders will pass underneath. Sujitda is the fire and emergency services minister after all, so such measurements have been taken care of,” he said.
The Telegraph Salt Lake spoke to two artists, residing in Salt Lake. “I drive to my Krishnanagar workshop regularly up VIP Road. Calcutta streets are already flooded with a rising number of vehicles with no corresponding increase in roadspace, barring a few flyovers. It is hardly a prudent idea to reduce roadspace further by such moves, aimed at apparent beautification,” said sculptor Gautam Pal, a resident of CL Block. The Beleghata crossing, he pointed out, has already got cluttered with several statues.
Pal hoped that the idea would not be replicated in Salt Lake. “Getting out of Salt Lake is already an ordeal in the evening, irrespective of whether I take Broadway or Second Avenue. It takes at least half an hour to navigate the traffic. A gate will only add to our congestion woes,” he said.
Kestopur gate
Artist Shuvaprasanna was scathing in his criticism. “The British had built wonderful institutions here with colonial architecture, which inspired comparisons of the city with London. This used to be India’s capital. We inherited a beautiful city and could have done more if we had retained a sense of aesthetics. Kintu shohorta kromosho kutsit, bekhappa hoye jachchhe.”
The former chairman of the West Bengal Heritage Commission, who had protested when Salt Lake’s islands on Broadway had been filled up with shoddy statues that are bad resemblances of icons like Satyajit Ray and Mother Teresa, advocated for the creation of a town planning committee to keep an eye on unregulated constructions in public spaces. “Major cities in the West have such panels of experts who vet all new installations. You cannot do just about anything you please in London or New York.”
Lake Town gate
Here, the BH Block resident lamented, the powers that be hardly ever reach out to artists or generally, people with a sense of aesthetics, save for rare bureaucrats like Debashis Sen who was known to approach renowned artists and architects for the beautification of New Town. “Random things are coming up, at taxpayers’ expense. These are nothing more than expressions of vanity by local politicians, who are hardly expected to be guardians of aesthetic standards. Tar phole shohorta kromosho jonjaler shohor hoye jachchhe,” he lamented, calling for a proper public art policy.
Write to saltlake@abp.in