TRICHY: A day after TOI reported the presence of political graffiti on the parapet walls of Cauvery bridge connecting Srirangam island defacing the aesthetics of the city, the State Highways department on Saturday launched a cleaning drive to remove all the wall paintings made by various political outfits. The works for whitewashing the parapet walls of Cauvery bridge, iconic spot of the city is underway.Built at an estimated cost of Rs 1 crore way back in 1976, Cauvery bridge stands on as many as 14 segments stretching up to 540 metres in length across the river Cauvery 15 metre wide road for vehicles and 2 metre wide pedestrian platform to enter and leave the Srirangam island. With crores of public money spent in constructing and refurbishing the vital bridge of Trichy in the past four decades, the solid parapet walls in past a week were spammed by various political parties including AIADMK , DMK, CPI, and even the upcoming political party of actor Kamal Haasan to advertise their announcements. Though it is banned to advertise on the properties of State highways department, the political graffiti defying the ban had been detracting the attention of motorists. After TOI carried a report titled “This is Ugly; political graffiti defacing clean city” dated February 16, 2018, it is learnt that State Highways department on Saturday morning commenced the cleaning drive including the whitewash works in the entire stretch of Cauvery bridge.“The whitewash works would completely cover the entire stretch of the Cauvery bridge to remove the graffiti. Meanwhile, the renovation works of Cauvery bridge at an estimated cost of Rs 35 lakh which would cover the parapet walls will be taken up in a month span.” Social workers welcoming the move of highways department had also sought the same to collect the expenditure spent for removing the graffiti from the political parties that had used the walls of public properties as a medium to advertise.

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