Three consultants to design signboards for monuments

Heritage architects and conservationists say three different agencies working on the signages will go against uniformity in overall aesthetic look of the monuments. But a senior ASI official said distribution of work will bring in “healthy competition” and “better output”.

The Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH),Rachna Vishwanathan and Consultants,and Poonam Thakur of Srishti Consultants are developing the signages for ASI. INTACH,which has about 15 monuments,has already signed the contract; the other two consultants will be signed up this week,officials said.

“Each of them have proposed their own design — we will implement them after the final proposal is approved,” a senior ASI official told Newsline. “This will create healthy competition and there will be better output. None of the designs have been approved so far.”

The official said INTACH’s initial proposal has been passed but the consultants will have to make a prototype at one of the allotted monuments. The prototype design can be implemented at other sites only after it passes an ASI examination,according to the official.

INTACH is also working on signages for 92 smaller monuments under the Department of Archaeology ahead of the Games and has worked out a design that proposes a combination of red sandstone and metal,INTACH’s Delhi chapter convenor A G K Menon said.

“We are using red sandstone,stainless steel,galvunum steel and heat stickers for signages,” Menon said. “We will use a process of stoving to provide a coating on the surface of the signages to prevent scratches.”

The other design,proposed by Rachna Vishwanathan and Associates,will see signages in different shades of sandstone according to the monument’s look. Vishwanathan,who earlier worked on the Qutub Minar Complex signage,will work on 12 monuments.

“We will use red sandstone in most monuments,as they blend with the Mughal architecture,” Vishwanathan said. “But we might use yellow or off-white sandstone with manual etching for some monuments.”

Vishwanathan said they will not use any metal.