Ghaziabad: Hindon elevated road renamed ‘Ram Setu’

The move to name the elevated road comes on the heels of the corporation approving in January a proposal to rename Ghaziabad city with a name that is to be chosen by the state government

The 10.3km Hindon elevated road, connecting Ghaziabad’s Raj Nagar Extension with UP Gate near east Delhi, will now be known as Ram Setu, the officials of the Ghaziabad municipal corporation announced on Thursday, after the executive committee cleared the proposal moved by mayor Sunita Dayal to rename the elevated stretch.

The four-lane 10.3km elevated road sees an estimated 40,000-50,000 vehicles per day, said municipal officials. (HT Archive)

The four-lane 10.3km elevated road sees an estimated 40,000-50,000 vehicles per day, said municipal officials. The work on the road, built at a cost of ₹1,147 crore, started during the tenure of Akhilesh Yadav-led Samajwadi Party in November 2014 and was touted as the longest elevated road in the country to be built on 287 single pillars.It was inaugurated by current chief minister Yogi Adityanath in March 2018, during his first tenure as CM.

The road also acts as a bypass for vehicles coming from Delhi and moving to western Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand.

“The executive committee approved the name proposed by the city mayor,” said Vikramaditya Malik, municipal commissioner.

The Hindu epic Ramayana talks of Ram Setu, a bridge made of floating stones created by an army of monkeys led by Hanuman to help Rama reach Lanka to rescue his wife Sita from demon king Ravana.

With Lok Sabha elections around the corner, political experts viewed the renaming exercise as an attempt by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to cash in on the positive sentiments surrounding the opening of the Ram temple in Ayodhya on January 22.

The BJP has a majority in the corporation with 72 councillors in the 100-member House.

“The ‘Hindon elevated road’ is no name. So, what better name we could give it other than naming it as Ram Setu?Lord Ram is adored by everyone and popular among masses. I do not want to get into controversy of whether the road was initiated by the Samajwadi Party government and inaugurated by CM Yogi Adityanath. It has been built with the taxpayers’ money,” Dayal said.

“We will now add name plates on both ends of the road and will also try to place a big idol of Lord Ram near the entry point. The works will be initiated soon. The committee also cleared one other proposal to name one of city’s major road after farmer leader, the late Chaudhary Charan Singh, who was recently (posthumously) conferred with the Bharat Ratna, the country’s highest civilian award,” Dayal said.

“Naming the road is within the jurisdiction of the corporation and they can do it. On the other hand, the BJP leaders seems to be just engaged in naming and renaming landmarks which came up during the previous regimes. The elevated road was built during the SP regime; the BJP leaders only inaugurated it later,” said Virendra Yadav, city president, Samajwadi Party.