Four Metro pillars standing outside the Rabi Aranya section of Eco Tourism Park will soon have illustrations from Sahaj Path painted on them. 

“The barren pillars are a bit of an eyesore and we wanted to do something creative with them. So we chose Nandalal Bose’s linocut paintings from Tagore’s Sahaj Path and chose the pillar outside Rabi Aranya to uphold the Tagore connection,” said Debashis Sen, chairman cum managing director of Housing and Infrastructure Development Corporation (Hidco). The pillars will be painted by art students. 

Vertical green
Hidco has also started an initiative to grow creepers at the base of some Metro pillars in front of the NKDA building opposite Nazrul Tirtha. “We have done a similar exercise with ivy creepers on a wall in the sculpture garden of Eco Park. At the Metro pillars, however, growth of the plants is very slow and a few have not survived. So we are exploring options of growing some other plants there,” said Sen. 

Visitors to Eco Park, who approach from gate 2, can also get to see a full-fledged vertical garden, although a high-tech one.

This wall has several “pockets” inside which plants are potted. “While the plants are being watered manually now, sensors are being installed at their roots.

“The sensors would note the humidity and soil conditions and send signals to a control room. The plants can then be watered by remote control,” said Sen, adding that this concept was one of the top entrants in Egiye Bangla, an entrepreneurship-based reality show. “But this model is expensive and we want to monitor its performance for a year before trying to replicate it elsewhere.”