Underground art

As dmrc builds new lines on time, ART is not top priority

Is a funds crunch derailing Delhi Metro's public art project? According to a government directive, one per cent of the development cost of a public project must be spent on art.

So the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) must invest roughly Rs 100 crore on putting up works of art considering that it is spending Rs 10,570 crore on the first phase of the project.

However, so far, DMRC has only got about a dozen works done by the Delhi College of Art, Chandigarh Art College and South Delhi Polytechnic. Explains a DMRC official: "No provision for art was initially made in the metro's detailed project report and hence we have no funds."

But DMRC did shortlist 20 well-known artists such as Jatin Das, A R Ramchandran, KS Radhakrishnan, Satish Gujral, Gogi Saroj Pal, Sanjay Bhattacharya, Hemi Bawa and Shamshad for commissioning art. Officials say that letters were also sent to a handful of senior artists more than a year ago, inviting them to "throw up ideas. But no one really responded."

A R Ramachandran, who's executed public projects for the Gandhi Memorial Museum at Rajghat and the Rajiv Gandhi Memorial in Sriperumbudur, admits that a letter came.

"But it was more like a circular sent to everybody," he says. Other artists also complain that DMRC lacks direction. "I'd be happy to execute a mural but there has to be a concept," says Jatin Das.

Glass artist Vijay Kowshik says he had approached DMRC with the proposal of forming a national arts committee to oversee the selection of artists and commission the project. He says that the Art Glass and Ceramics Society of India, of which he's the general secretary, can take on the task of coordinating the project.

"The project needs a vision. The Metro is getting built on time and the art project needs attention," he feels.

The chief public relations officer at DMRC, however, says that art is not the first priority. "Our priority is to complete part of the project." For the time being, murals have been purchased from the art colleges for between Rs 450 and Rs 600 per sq ft.

Meanwhile, DMRC has been approached by sundry art companies, including Ritu Nanda-promoted Rimari, which sells art works to hotels and institutions, to buy art from them.

For creating DMRC's first mural, nearly three dozen students of South Delhi Polytechnic For Women's art and commercial art departments got involved.

They worked in shifts over three months and sketched the neighbourhood surroundings and hand beat the images on metal sheets under the watchful eye of the college's vice-principal Ananda Moy Bannerji.

Today, on the staircase wall of north Delhi's spank new Kohat Enclave metro station, a wide metal mural glimmers with images of city transport. "This may not be a masterpiece, but this was our students' first big project," says Bannerji.

As for the Delhi Metro, it is merely following the guideline of the Delhi Urban Arts Commission, a statutory body formed under a 1974 Act of Parliament and responsible for getting public art projects implemented. To rope in big artists, the Metro needs both initiative and cash.