Delhi’s Teen Murti Marg to get a Haifa suffix ahead of Modi’s Israel visit

Teen Murti Marg will be renamed Teen Murti Haifa Marg, the third-largest city in the country of Israel ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in July. Teen Murti Marg is famous because it was where Jawaharlal Nehru lived as Prime Minister

The New Delhi Municipal Council on Thursday proposed to rename Teen Murti Marg as Teen Murti Haifa Marg. The council also wants to rename Teen Murti Chowk as Teen Murti Haifa Chowk ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Israel in July.

Teen Murti Marg will be renamed Teen Murti Haifa Marg, the third-largest city in the country of Israel ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit in July. (Sanchit Khanna/ HT file)

Haifa is the third-largest city in Israel. It has an India connection because soldiers from three Indian states soldiers sacrificed their lives while contributing to the liberation of the Palestinian post of Haifa from Muslim Turks in 1918, according to statement released by NDMC vice-chairman Karan Singh Tanwar.

The three statues (murties) on the crossing of the Teen Murti Marg depict three Indian regiments from Jodhpur, Mysore and Hyderabad. The road is called Teen Murti after the statue, but the reference to Haifa, where the battle took place, had been missing so far.

The Teen Murti Memorial, which houses these statues, was designed by British sculptor Leonard Jennings. It was built in 1922.

In August 1948, Teen Murti Marg’s most famous building, Teen Murti House, became the official residence of independent India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, who lived here for sixteen years until his death on May 27, 1964. After Nehru’s death, the Central government decided to convert the Teen Murti House into a memorial that would keep alive Nehru’s memory and legacy.

In the past, too, names of various roads and roundabouts have been changed in the NDMC area. In 1986, Connaught Circus was renamed as Indira Chowk and Connaught Place renamed as Rajiv Chowk. In 2002, Canning Road was renamed as Madhav Rao Scindia Marg. In 2015, Aurangzeb Road was renamed as Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Marg and in 2016, Race Course Road was renamed as Dara Shikoh Marg. In February this year, Park Street and Park Lane were renamed as Bangbandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman Road and Bangbandhu Sheikh Rahman Mujibur Lane.