Madhubani station bags second prize for its beautiful look

A railway station in Bihar which was described as India’s “dirtiest” railway station for two consecutive years in a survey conducted by the Indian Railways has now bagged the second prize in a ‘beauty’ contest.

A railway official Rajesh Kumar said the Madhubani railway station along with Tamil Nadu’s Madurai has won the second prize of the national transporter’s in-house station beautification contest. “This is a big achievement for us. With this award, this station in Bihar has become worldwide famous for its lovelier look,” divisional railway manager, Samastipur, RK Jain told mediapersons on Thursday.

As per reports, a total of 62 entries from across 11 railway zones were received by the railway board for the beautification contest. After a close scrutiny of these stations, Madhubani was adjudged the second most beautiful station on the railway map in the whole of the country. Ballarshah and Chandrapur railway stations of Maharashtra though walked away with the first prize.

The recognition for Madhubani indeed looks great given the fact that it got the “dirtiest” tag by the railways for the year 2015 and 2016. The transformation follows the public shaming which prompted the artists to work day and night for a full week to give a soothing coat of paint, ultimately turning it into a typical “art junction”.

“We are happy that our efforts have borne fruit and our station has emerged as one of the beautiful stations on the railways map,” said Uma Kumari Jha who was one of the artists who volunteered her service to transform the face of the station.

Under part of the unique campaign, more than 100 artists across all age groups and sex painted the walls of the Madhubani station with vibrant colours involving various social, cultural and mythological themes. What was more interesting, they did all this free of cost — to ensure their railway station was recognised as the “loveliest” station.

The teams of artists in a group of 20 worked on various themes and within a week, turned the walls of the station spread around 10,000 feet into various shades of world-famous Madhubani paintings. The main themes of these included mythological stories such as the wedding of Goddess Sita, miracles of Lord Krisha, Krishna-Radha love story, rural life of Mithila region, rural sports and folk art.

“The total wall area has been beautified with 160 paintings on various themes under traditional Madhubani style. It took over 10 days for the artists to transform the station,” senior railway official Rajesh Kumar said.

Courtesy: GulfNews