Mumbaikars gear up to give 36 railway stations a colourful makeover

The 'Hamara Station, Hamari Shaan' project, which envisages the transformation of 36 stations over a collective paint effort, spearheaded by NGOs Mumbai First and Making A Difference (MAD) Foundation, along with Western and Central Railways, is set to kick off soon.

The project is part of Daan Utsav or the festival of philanthropy, between October 2-8. The final artwork designs that will don the station walls are in the pipeline. The dank walls and corners of staircases, booking windows and foot overbridges of 15 stations between CST and Thane on the Central line and 21 on the Western line from Churchgate to Dahisar will turn into canvases for motifs and murals that have been designed to highlight the history of each station and its surrounding areas.

This follows the success of similar initiatives at Borivali, Matunga and Khar railway stations earlier this year, when citizen volunteers took charge to beautify platforms with artwork.

Haresh Shah, founder of MAD Foundation, said, "The stations look dull. We want to inject new life into them. The aim is to create a positive and happy environment for commuters. The spruced up look will lift each station's energy. Over 10,000 volunteers will join hands to make the initiative a success. After each beautification project, the number of volunteers have increased. We expect to have at least 150 volunteers for each station. Various cultural programmes will also be organised."

"The new look will motivate commuters to keep the stations clean. We have asked family members and relatives of railway employees to participate," said Arati Singh Parihar, DCM (WR).

In Dadar (West), volunteers will highlight the history, art and culture of the area. Mulund station will have visuals on organ donations. Since Vikhroli is home to a large mangrove cover, the station will bear a mangrove theme. Nature and wildlife will be the running theme at Byculla station.

While talking about the artwork and themes, Mumbai First CEO Shishir Joshi said, "Most of the designs have been finalised. We will re-paint the entrance gate, booking office area, staircases, as well as the toilet and platform walls. The wall dedicated to the history of the area will have more text than artwork."

Apart from the vibrant artwork, volunteers will also clean station toilets and other areas. Joshi said, "We have reached out to various institutes that have adopted different railway stations and have asked them to join hands with us for this noble cause."

So far, over 10 schools, including a few BMC schools, over 15 colleges, over 10 city-based NGOs, over 20 corporates are expressed their willingness to take part in the initiative.

Artist like Tyrell Valladares and Rahul Kanal will beautify Mumbai Central station with their artwork. Some of the artwork have been finalised through a contest.

For those willing to lend a hand as a volunteer, they can do so by signing up on the Mumbai First web page. Participants will be required to specify the number of days they would be willing to dedicate as a volunteer. They can also choose the station they would like to work on.

Since the project has been initiated by the citizen residents, funds are being raised by Ketto – an online crowdfunding platform. So far, Rs 5,10,000 has been collected through the crowdfunding initiative.

Shishir Joshi said,"We have so far collected 20% of the estimated cost for the project. For small stations, we have an estimated budget of about Rs 3 lakh. For the bigger stations, a budget of about Rs 5 lakh has been allocated.

We are able to reach put to a lot of people through social media. They have either registered as volunteers or made monetary contributions."