Chennai, Aug 1 (IANS): The Tamil Nadu government has decided to give a facelift to ration shops across the state as part of the celebrations marking India's 75th year of Independence.

The state's food department will be in charge of the initiative under which 2,850 ration shops in 38 districts will get a facelift in the first phase of modernization.

Tamil Nadu Secretary for cooperation, food, and consumer protection, J. Radhakrishnan in a statement on Monday said that internal and external ambiance of the ration shops will be upgraded.

He said that this would benefit consumers as well employees of the shops.

Radhakrishnan also said that as part of Singara Chennai 2.0 project, murals depicting nature and various sports were painted on the walls of a ration shop run by the Tamil Nadu Civil Service Corporation (TNCSC).

The warehouses of the Tamil Nadu Civil Services Corporation (TNCSC) will also be modernised soon, he added.

Tamil Nadu has 35,253 ration shops which include 10,279 part-time shops.

Of these, 6,978 shops are functioning in rental buildings and in the first phase of expansion programme, 756 of them would be moved to new premises which will be beautified and modernised as per the specifications of the food department.