The wall project fails: Taint replaces paint

The two-km-long Mahim-Matunga wall along Senapati Bapat Road that was painted three years ago by members of graffiti group The Wall Project and enthusiastic Mumbaikars is back to its old, defaced state. Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation had cleared slums along the road to facilitate the painting, but now encroachers have returned to pavements making homes under tarpaulin sheets and setting up kacha houses. Illegal parking of trucks and buses and mounds of garbage along the road are adding to the ugly look.

The tarpaulin dwellings and hawkers have hidden the colourful wall and paan stains have covered some of the paintings.

"BMC did its best to clean and make the wall available to us for painting, but beggars came back soon. They obviously cannot have a policeman keeping an eye all the time," said Neha Sudhir, a resident of the area who had participated in the project.

BMC had invited nearly 200 artists to paint social messages, such as eradicating illiteracy, and Hindi alphabet on the wall to educate passersby. It had removed illegal huts along the stretch and cleaned it up for the purpose. However, those living on the footpath along the wall are back now and the paintings have failed to deter people from spitting paan on it.

An official at the G South ward office said despite regular crackdown, encroachers kept coming back. "The paintings have faded to a great extent as encroachers rest their shelters on the wall," said the official.

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