Aurangzeb Road becomes history

And now Aurangzeb Road will be known as APJ Abdul Kalam Road, consigning it to history books. While the demand to change the name of Aurangzeb Road was going on for many years, the Aam Aadmi Party government finally did it.

Well, Delhi has a history of roads being renamed. Here’s the lowdown on the modern-day names and their original names.

Tees January Marg

Used to be Albuquerque Road. It got its new name after Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated here on January 30, 1948.

Motilal Nehru Marg

Jawaharlal Nehru used to live here as the Prime Minister in the interim government in 1946. It was called York Road and was named after his father. Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh now lives in 3, York Road bungalow where Nehru used to live.

Jawaharlal Nehru Road

This road bang opposite JP Hospital is now known as Jawaharlal Nehru Road. It was known as Circular Road till 1972.

Rajendra Prasad Road

Queen Victoria Road was the old name of this busy road. India’s first President, Dr Rajendra Prasad lived here at Bungalow No 1 when he was part of Nehru’s cabinet in the interim government.

Dr Zakir Hussain Marg

We all know this road because of Oberoi Intercontinental Hotel but it has a chequered history. The funeral procession of the then President of India, Dr. Zakir Hussain passed from here on way to Jamia Millia Islamia and that is how it got this name.

Krishna Menon Marg

This was Hastings Road as the then Defence Minister Krishna Menon used to live in a bungalow here. Former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee lives her now.

Maulana Azad Road

It was known as King Edward VII Road but got its new name since Maulana Azad used to live here.

Rafi Marg

Although it never had any mills, this road was called Old Mills Road. Rafi Ahmad Kidwai was the Education Minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s cabinet. Similarly, Cornwallis Road is the earlier name of Subramaniam Bharati Marg named after the Tamil poet.

Janpath

A prestigious address in Delhi, it was known as Queen’s Way. Rajpath was King’s Way.

Rajaji Marg used to be called King George’s Avenue earlier. Interestingly, one road in the capital has two names. Both are recognised by the postal department. Parliament Street is also accepted as Sansad Marg.

Home to many corporate honchos, Amrita Shergil Marg, was known as Ratendone Road. Sardar Patel Marg was known as Kitchener Road. As for Copernicus Marg and Pandit Pant Marg, they were known as Lytton Road and Queen Mary’s Avenue, respectively. Dr. Bishambar Das Marg was Allenby Road and Tolstoy Marg was Keeling Road. Kasturba Gandhi Marg used to be Curzon Road. Close to Tolstoy Marg is Pt. Ravi Shankar Shukla Marg. It was known as Canning Lane till the early 1980s. Pt Ravi Shankar Shukla was the father of former Union Minister V. C. Shukla. Canning Road is now Shrimant Madhav Rao Scindia Marg. And Rajesh Pilot Marg is the name of South End Road. This is just a two-minute walk from Aurangzeb Road or APJ Abdul Kalam Road.

When Janata Party came to power in 1977, it renamed Irwin Hospital and Willingdon Hospital as Jai Prakash Narain Hospital and Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital respectively. In the Janata Party days, Rouse Avenue was renamed Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg.

And where is Baird Road? Close to Gole Market. The new name of Baird Road is Bangla Sahib Marg. However, Baird Road is still a commonly used name for this road. The old Kali Mandir is on this road.

There is one name that is still holding fort even though it was changed in the late 1970s. While Baba Kharak Singh Marg, which faces Hanuman Mandir, was known as Irwin Road, if you buy petrol from the petrol pump on this road, the bill will have Irwin Road Petrol Pump as its name.

Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg was known as Delhi-Mathura Road till the mid-1960s. Dilli-6 and Edward Park in Dilli-6 remain the same for the locals even now although the park was renamed Subhash Park in the early 1970s. That was also the time when Harding Avenue became Tilak Marg and Harding Bridge became Tilak Bridge. The iconic Harding Library got a new name, Hardayal Library.