Sculpture Garden at Eco Park to be inaugurated on Wednesday

Kolkata: Visitors at Eco Park in New Town will now have an added attraction in the form of the Sculpture Garden which will be depicting the history of Bengal from the medieval Renaissance led by Sri Chaitanya to Satyajit Ray's world of films through attractive murals and portraits. The sculpture garden will be inaugurated by state Urban Development minister Firhad Hakim on Wednesday and will host a special light and sound show explaining the story in each of the relief panels.

"The light and sound show will be unique as it keeps the audience moving from one panel to another in groups, moving as if with the passage of time, rather than sit and view from one place. For the elderly and very young, there will be few benches but most will have to stand-and-walk around to get the fascinating story," a senior official of West Bengal Housing & Infrastructure Development Corporation (HIDCO), the custodian of Eco Park said.

The 12 panels in the form of murals will depict various landmark episodes in the history of Bengal like the Battle of Plassey, Raja Rammohan Roy & Renaissance of Bengal, Anandamath – Bankimchandra; the awakening of Bengal of India, Swami Vivekananada-Call of Youth and his activities, Santhal Rebellion, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose –Azad Hind Fauz and his revolution, Rabindranath Tagore-The Visva Bharati Movement etc. Apart from the murals, there will be 52 portraits which starts with Shri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu and ends with Begum Rokeya. "This list includes the host of remarkable individuals who through their activities in different walks of life proved to be the makers of the history of Bengal, especially in the 19th century," the HIDCO official said.

A group of artists created the wall reliefs which have been supervised by Artist Suvaprasanna. The sculpture garden will be open during day time but to catch the unique light and sound show, one has to be in the park during the evening.