The Chowringhee divider wears green. (Anindya Shankar Ray)

The heart of Calcutta has changed its stripes before polls can bring change.

The civic body has painted road dividers in Chowringhee in a shade of Trinamul, rejecting the traditional yellow-and-black stripes of dividers elsewhere in the city.

The green-and-orange colour code in the median dividers near the JL Nehru Road--Middleton Row crossing marks a change from the black-and-yellow stripes visible since 2003. The new colours have been painted on the walls of brick enclosures that have replaced old iron railings on a 150-metre stretch near the Jeevan Deep building as part of a “beautification” scheme for median dividers. Shrubs and flowering plants will be planted inside the enclosures.

Work started on JL Nehru Road a couple of months ago. But the surprise came when the outer walls of the new dividers were coloured green and the top border given a coat of orange.

An official of the Calcutta Municipal Corporation (CMC) said mayoral council member Firhad Hakim suggested that green be used but didn’t impose it. “Hakim asked the engineers if green would suit the divider and they said yes. There was no pressure to use only green.”

Mayor Sovan Chatterjee insisted it was coincidence that green was also Trinamul’s colour. “Does the green and orange combination represent only Trinamul? Green is also the colour of our national flag. Why aren’t you saying that the colour of the Tricolour inspired this?” he demanded.

The colours of some railway stations like Singur turned green soon after Mamata Banerjee took charge of the railway ministry in 2009. The overhead sheds of platforms and the walls of these stations turned all-green.

The exterior walls of Esplanade Metro station have also been painted in shades of green and orange.

The police said there was no law against using green on dividers. “Green is easy to sight in the dark,” an officer said.

In the civic body’s headquarters, even the red carpets were replaced by green ones after Trinamul won the civic polls. The interior walls of the chambers of mayor and his team were repainted green.

Speculation is rife whether Writers’ Buildings will also be painted green someday if Trinamul enters the red bastion.