Graffiti News

Eight sculptures were in place out of ten planned

Ranchi Municipal Corporation (RMC) is turning scrap metal into public art at major roundabouts in Ranchi, India. According to the Times of India report fetched on April 7, 2026, the first stage of the Waste to Wonder initiative covers ten installations. RMC city manager Sandeep Kumar said eight had been positioned and the remaining two were expected to be unveiled. The report gives no specific opening date for those final works.

The setting makes the project part of an everyday journey through the city. People encounter the sculptures while passing through streets and junctions, with the installations placed along commuter routes. For followers of street art, the connection lies in that shared public setting: an artwork becomes part of the surroundings people use in daily life.

These are sculptures assembled from metal, so looking at them involves volume, silhouette and their relationship to the surrounding space. The project expands a street-art itinerary beyond painted walls to include objects occupying the city landscape.

Municipal scrap supplies the material

The sculptures use reclaimed metal drawn from RMC's central junkyard and municipal storage facilities, according to the Times of India. The reported materials include chassis from decommissioned cars, defunct streetlight poles and other metallic debris. RMC worked with two private firms to carry out the project, although the article does not identify those companies or name individual artists.

That material history offers a useful way to approach the work. A vehicle chassis once served movement; a streetlight pole supported a piece of street infrastructure. In the installations, material from those earlier functions becomes something people can look at in the same urban environment. The shift in use is central to understanding the initiative.

The report does not describe the subject or title of each sculpture, or explain how particular components were assembled. Visitors should therefore treat the listed materials as information about the project as a whole. They do not establish the contents of every individual installation.

Reuse becomes visible in the streetscape

Each sculpture weighs between 1.5 and two tonnes, and the Times of India reports that around 15 to 20 tonnes of scrap had been diverted from landfill and made into public art. Those figures describe the reported scale of the reuse effort. They also help explain why the project concerns substantial pieces of urban sculpture.

For public-art audiences, the material choice creates a second layer of interest alongside the finished forms. The city is displaying material that had been stored as scrap, giving reuse a physical presence in places people recognise. A viewer can consider both the sculpture and the change in purpose that made it possible.

The source does not provide a project budget, a carbon assessment or a long-term maintenance plan. The reported tonnage supports an account of material reuse, while broader environmental savings remain unquantified in the article. Keeping that distinction clear allows the work to be discussed on the evidence available: discarded municipal metal has become artwork in public space.

Four named locations offer starting points for a visit

The Times of India names Hatania Talab, Karamtoli Talab, Jail Talab and the Naga Baba Vegetable Market as places where residents and visitors can see the installations. These are the concrete location references available in the report and provide starting points for finding the project in Ranchi.

The article does not supply coordinates, a complete list of all ten roundabouts or an artwork-by-artwork location guide. It also gives no viewing arrangements for individual sites. Check the position and pedestrian access at each location, and view roundabout installations from safe, permitted public areas. The four names should be treated as leads for a visit rather than a fully documented walking route.

Once there, look at how the metal forms relate to the junction, waterside setting or market surroundings. That attention to the relationship between work and place also applies to murals. You can explore more street art using the Wallscape map.

Source: Times of India