B'luru: Richmond Circle flyover gets murals of cricketing heroes

The Richmond Circle flyover has been attracting attention since Sunday. Its pillars feature murals of 10 cricket legends from Karnataka.  

The paintings include Rahul Dravid, Javagal Srinath, Anil Kumble, and Syed Kirmani, among others. It is conceived and executed by the not-for-profit organisation, India Rising Trust (IRT), in partnership with BBMP as part of the Brand Bengaluru initiative. 

Calling Richmond Circle ‘Kreeda (Sanskrit for playing or sporting) junction’, a coordinator from IRT explains that they chose to go with this theme because “five of the city’s top sporting spaces are located under 2 km from the flyover — the Chinnaswamy Stadium (KSCA), Kanteerava Stadium, KSHA Hockey Stadium, Bangalore Football Stadium, and Karnataka State Lawn Tennis Association stadium”. “Many schools that host the city’s most important inter-school tournaments like St Joseph’s Boys’ High School, St Joseph’s Indian High School, Bishop Cotton Boys’ School, and Bishop Cotton Girls’ School, are around this area too,” he adds. 

Why the initiative?

There is almost “no public display of local pride or identity in an organised way” in the city, he observes. “Until a while back, all flyovers had posters pasted on their pillars. Today, such defacing is uncommon. However, most spaces under flyovers are still not maintained well. IRT partnered with the BBMP and started working on making these spaces open for the public,” he says. 

In the past, IRT has transformed spaces under three flyovers — the ‘Wild Arena’ (inspired by Karnataka wildlife) at Veeranapalya opposite Manyata Tech Park; ‘Bengaluru Margadarshana’ (featuring the city’s road systems) at Kodigehalli near Hebbal; and ‘Chaturanga Mantapa’ (featuring a life-size chessboard) at Carmelaram Junction on Sarjapur Road. 

Talking about the decision to focus on cricketers, he says, “Cricket is the most popular sport in the country. Karnataka has a strong cricket culture and won the Ranji Trophy for the first time in 1974. Given it will be the 50th anniversary of this landmark moment next year and the excitement around recently concluded World Cup, the theme worked best,” explains the IRT representative. 

Future projects

They plan to include murals of other popular sports personalities in the future, he says. Icons from fields like engineering, aeronautics, and history will also be featured.