DUAC tells NDMC to remove pink & purple wrap

Delhi Urban Art Commission (DUAC) has asked New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) to remove the purple and pink wrap around the Commonwealth Games headquarter building in Connaught Place. The wrap had been described by the Games organising committee (OC) as a "branding exercise".

As reported by TOI in September 2009, the building wrap was seen as an act of "vandalism" by the architect of the building, Kuldip Singh. Singh had said that the colours used and the method of branding is an affront to the aesthetics of the city, a fact other urban planners and architects had agreed with.

DUAC chairman K T Ravindran said: "We had written a letter to NDMC a while back to remove the wall wrap as it serves no purpose. The building was designed keeping a specific purpose in mind and the wall wrap is like a blemish on it. No such thing has been seen anywhere else in the world. Since the wall wrap is a sticker, it can be removed easily. NDMC is yet to act." NDMC spokesman Anand Tiwari, when contacted, said that he was not aware of the letter.

OC spokesman Lalit Bhanot said: "We are the tenants of the building. The building is owned by NDMC so it is for them to take action. We have not been informed about any DUAC order to this effect." Singh had written a letter to the organising committee, Commonwealth Games on this matter on March 6, 2009, besides registering his protest with the New Delhi Municipal Council. When he did not get a response from either agency he approached DUAC in November 2009.

Singh said: "No action has been taken in the matter. I don’t know if NDMC has succeeded in communicating the orders to the organising committee, which has covered the walls from top to bottom with garish colours in the name of Games logo."