NEW DELHI: While the Central Government has decided to rename Aurangzeb Road after former President APJ Abdul Kalam, it has also proposed to reduce the Lutyens Bungalow Zone by 5.13 square kilometres, taking out areas such as Jor Bagh, Golf Links, Panchsheel Marg, Sardar Patel Marg, Chanakyapuri and others from the zone.
The New Delhi Municipal Council, under Urban Development Ministry, decided to rename the Aurangzeb Road in Lutyens Delhi to honour the former President, who died recently.
Last month, BJP national secretary and MP from East Delhi Mahesh Girri had urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi that Aurangzeb Road in central Delhi be renamed after Kalam. “In my opinion, this will be a great way of preserving his memories and legacy forever,” the East Delhi MP had said after submitting a proposal in this regard to Modi.
The 83-year-old former President died last month in Shillong, Meghalaya after suffering a heart attack while delivering a lecture at a management school.
In the meantime, proposal for fresh demarcation of Lutyens Bungalow Zone were made by Urban Development Ministry. The ministry also sought suggestions and objections to them from common people by putting up the proposal on its website.
The proposal was prepared by the Delhi Urban Arts Commission (DUAC) and submitted to the ministry. As per the report, the Lutyens Bungalow Zone area is proposed to be reduced by 5.13 sq.kms to 23.60 sq.kms from the present 28.73 sq.kms. It has been proposed to take out areas such as Jor Bagh, Golf Links, Sunder Nagar, Bengali Market, Ashoka Road, Mandir Marg, Panchsheel Marg, Sardar Patel Marg and Chanakyapuri from the zone.
DUAC has proposed to keep the Lutyens Bungalow Zone boundary close to the original boundary envisaged by Sir Edwin Lutyens in 1912 while removing the transformed, commercialized areas, modern colonies which do not bear any semblance to the Lutyens Bungalow character and retaining green areas which were included in Lutyens Bungalow Zone in 1988.
The Lutyens Bungalow Zone area was increased to 28.73 sq.kms in 2003 with the inclusion of new areas such as Babar Road, Bengali Market, Sundar Nagar, Jor Bagh, Panchsheel Marg and parts of diplomatic area in Chanakyapuri.
The report also stated that the premises of Supreme Court of India, which were deleted from Lutyens Bungalow Zone in 2003, are now proposed to be included.