The electrical feeder boxes in New Town and Sector V are set to shed their dowdy poster-covered avaters and get a fresh look. Hidco and NDITA have offered to sponsor the designer coat of paint that these boxes will have. 

At the KAF Public Conference organised by the Kolkata Architecture Foundation held last week in New Town School, the KAF put up a presentation on how they had painted the feeder boxes in the vicinity of their office in Hindusthan Park. Chief guest Debashis Sen, who helms both Hidco and NKDA, was present in the audience. On taking the stage, he announced that the government would be ready to fund the beautification of the feeder boxes in Sector V and New Town. 

KAF, which has already beautified feeder boxes near its Hindusthan Road office in south Calcutta, has taken up the offer. “We have started a survey. Our plan is to choose the feeder boxes on the main road and at crucial locations. Places which will be spotted fleetingly from moving vehicles will have designs while places where gatherings take place with greater eye holding time, like near food stalls, there will be communication,” said Abin Chaudhuri, KAF trustee and director of Abin Design Studio which has designed Nazrul Tirtha. Anuj Kale, a web comic artist and urban designer, has been asked to contribute visual ideas. 

“We will start work on the first feeder box within 10 days and are targeting to finish 100 in two months. We will request Hidco to get the requisite permission from the West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company which owns the feeder boxes,” Chaudhuri added.