What the Dalhousie Square lamp posts will look like

Move over boring blocks of cement. Calcutta footpaths are all set to be paved with granite for the first time.

Dalhousie Square (or BBD Bag, if you prefer to call it so) and its pavements are getting a facelift for Christmas, with beauty aids from different cities. The Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) will spend over Rs 1 crore on the granite from Bangalore and the cast-iron lamp posts from New Delhi, as accessories. This is part of a plan to doll up Dalhousie Square as a prime heritage zone.

“The stretch from the RBI building to the Council House Street crossing will be beautified in the first phase, to be completed by Christmas,” said municipal commissioner Alapan Bandyopadhyay.

Civic engineers said the black and grey granite will cost Rs 70 per sq ft, about four times higher than pre-cast cement blocks. Initially, about 30,000 sq ft of footpath will be done up. The Bangalore supplier was selected as he quoted the lowest rate.

The cast-iron lamp post will have a heritage look. It will be Victorian — a New Delhi firm had “the best design” — and in the first phase, 30 lamp posts will be set up. The cost of setting up one lamp post, including underground cable, will be Rs 3 lakh.

Illumination schemes are afoot for GPO and Writers’ Buildings.

There is also a bid to pull down billboards in Dalhousie Square, as they are not conducive to beauty. The civic body has stopped issuing licences for billboard rights in the area, and has approached the old licensees to pull down the advertisement boards on their own.