GCC Plans More Inclusive Madras Day Celebrations This Year

The Madras Day celebrations this year will be more inclusive as the Greater Chennai Corporation has decided to kick start various city beautification initiatives with the participation of residents of all kinds across the city.

According to a Chennai Corporation official, the Madras Day celebrations would be coordinated by the Smart City wing of the civic body. "As a part of the celebrations, our plan is to engage residents' welfare associations, non-government organizations, artists, and corporate companies. We will encourage the residents in slums and other areas to take part in the mass cleaning and beautification," the official said.

He added that initiatives like tree planting and creating artworks would be kickstarted on the day so that the works could continue. The civic body has also requested the public to clean their surroundings on Madras Day and create artworks on walls by engaging their children. Madras Day falls on August 22 which commemorates the foundation of the city 382 years ago.

The official said that until last year, Madras Day was celebrated by certain organizations, which would organize seminars, heritage walks, and other such events. "This year, we have decided to include everyone in the city and encourage them to take ownership of the beautification works. Once kick-started, the beautification will gain pace and people will maintain the public spaces," he added.

Apart from engaging the public, the civic body is trying to attract corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds from private companies to fund artists to create artworks across the city and residents' welfare associations to create greenery in their neighborhoods. The plan is to link artists and donors so that they can mutually help each other in making the city cleaner.

The official said that a wider publicity campaign would be conducted to create awareness of the Madras Day celebrations and proposed initiatives.

Meanwhile, the civic body has already requested private firms to fund ongoing beautification works like creating artworks on city walls, pillars of the bridges, and creating greenery at traffic islands.

"Already some private firms expressed interest to fund artworks under bridges. We will not receive funds directly from the corporate firms but we will link artists with them," the official said.

On Thursday, the Chennai Corporation conducted a meeting with officials of Chennai Metrorail Limited and the highways department. During the meeting, the civic body requested them to participate in the city beautification drive by creating artworks on the Metrorail bridges and highways bridges.