The Sewri mudflats, second home to migratory flamingos every year, has got its own permanent aviary icon, right in the centre of a traffic island. The pink flamingo sculpture is made out of recycled metal and looms over the traffic at a height of 16 feet.
Sewri ex-corporator Sachin Padwal said, “The area is known for its flamingos. We want citizens to be able to see this beautiful sculpture from a distance and admire it.” He said it took nearly four months to make this installation, which was erected using cranes. “So we made sure it had a deep and strong base underground to hold it. We have also taken a special no-objection from the BMC commissioner,” said Padwal.
Padwal said he wants to make Sewri beautiful and make this place known to as many people as he can. “I have taken this initiative and funded it from the money that I was allocated as a corporator. Although the fee of the designer was high, I requested him to do it at the lowest price possible because even his workshop is in Sewri,” added Padwal.
The former corporator said usually such sculptures are made using plaster of Paris which gets spoiled, so he made sure the flamingo was made out of metal, which will continue to remain in a good condition for a long time, if not posterity. He said the designer used metal from used ships which has the capacity to withstand salty water for decades.
The designer of the sculpture, Arjan Khambatta, who has made over 300 sculptures since the 1980s, said, “This is my fifth traffic island in Mumbai. Normally, the request is from people who have taken space on rent from the BMC, but this was the first time that the BMC itself approached me.” He said he wanted the traffic island to look like a Fort but due to budget constraints they decided to streamline it and only go for the flamingo. He said normally he doesn’t even colour his sculptures. “I keep the colour of the metal, but here I decided to paint it bright pink so that it stands out in the area which is dusty and dull,” he said, adding that he used materials that are not new so it can be recycled.
