new delhi in 1974 peter wolf an american musician compared the new york subway to an urban jail with their maze of security gates iron railings and narrow stairways delhi metros commuters may find this to be an echo of their sentiment but things are changing over the past few months delhi metro rail corporation dmrc has been trying to position some of its stations as more than just a place to catch a train in a series of tieups with various organizations delhi metro has been trying to make its stations active public spaces with emphasis on art culture and literature from murals along station walls and pillars near preet vihar to exhibitions and specialized bookstores within the station premises delhi metro has converted some of the stations into hubs where a commuter or regular pedestrian can get a glimpse of the culture and history of the country we have opened bookstores offering books in different indian languages held specialized exhibitions of rare photographs on the history of the country including mahatma gandhi and even have a permanent nobel memorial wall in the rajiv chowk station celebrating the nobel laureates of the country said delhi metro spokesman anuj dayal thats not all metro is also planning to convert the heritage line extension of the corridor from central secretariat to kashmere gate into a walk down the history of delhi stations like ito delhi gate red fort jama masjid and kashmere gate will have special panels and exhibitions showcasing nuggets of history of not only delhi but also the local area the panels will move from the british or colonial at the ito station to medieval at red fort and kashmere gate highlighting the history of the area added dayal converting metro stations into public spaces is big abroad for instance the munich ubahn is renowned for its colourfully designed stations which not only brighten the surroundings but also make it an inviting place for commuters built in anticipation of the 1972 olympics the ubahns stations were originally quite minimalistic but as the system expanded it changed into its current avatar thats bold and colourful stations like candidplatz dlferstrasse and georgbrauchlering use the full colour spectrum to enhance the sense of movement as riders pass through the space georgbrauchlering stations the great journey by franz ackermann is made up of 400 large metal panels colour block tiles interspersed with images from postcards maps paintings and photographs bring a soaring sense of energy much like the munich ubahn new york too has experimented with its stations turning them into public spaces art installations murals sound installations and even a neon installation has changed the way the stations on the new york subway function even the station architecture echoes the subways themes the new york aquarium station has stairways and walls that dip and sway mimicking the nearby cyclone roller coaster