Gallery for preserving idols to get major facelift

Kolkata: The Kolkata Metropolitan Development Authority (KMDA) is working on to give a major facelift to its gallery beside Rabindra Sarobar Lake that was created in 2012 for preserving some of the best Durga idols and installating art adorning the earlier puja pandals.

"The revamped Rabindra Sarobar art gallery will be able to preserve as many as ten idols. Seven idols will be placed on separate concrete structures, while the remaining three will be displayed in the form of installation art within the 70,000 sqaure feet area earmarked for the gallery," a senior KMDA official said.

The major attraction will be the ceiling that is being decked up with as many as 4,000 bells and the boundary walls around the gallery will be decorated with terracotta. The entrance gate will also be designed in a special way to woo visitors. There will be granite floor providing a smooth pathway. The gallery, a brain child of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, was created in 2012 to give common people a glimpse of some selective Durga idols that they wanted to see but could not due to huge footfall or for being outside the state. Every year around 10 idols were preserved and they were replaced with new ones the following year. Some issues over maintenance cropped up after 2016 and the decision to revamp was taken up last year.

The work is presently in its final stage and KMDA executive engineer Sudhin Nandy is supervising the work. The KMDA is spending around Rs 2 crore for the revamp. It may be mentioned that when the gallery was created for the first time in 2012, there were around 1,000 visitors per day from October to December.

Apart from the visitors, morning and evening walkers at the Sarovar also did not miss the opportunity to visit it.

"We are hopeful that it will be ready before the Durga Puja and from this year, we will be able to preserve idols and attractive installation art used for adorning pandals," the official added.