Yamuna Expressway to be renamed after former PM Vajpayee by UP govt.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi to reveal the name on November 25 at the Noida International Airport's foundation stone laying event.
The political squabble over expressways in Uttar Pradesh could heat up in the coming days, as the Yogi Adityanath-led state administration is expected to rename the Yamuna Expressway after former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is set to reveal the new name on November 25 during the foundation stone laying ceremony of the Noida International Airport in Jewar, according to a storey in Hindustan Times' sister website Livehindustan.
If the expressway is renamed after the late former Prime Minister, it will not be the first infrastructure in Uttar Pradesh to take the name of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party's co-founder (BJP). The Yogi government renamed the Ekana International Cricket Stadium in the state capital Lucknow as 'Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee International Cricket Stadium' in November 2018, about three months after Vajpayee's death.
Since the BJP took control in Uttar Pradesh in March 2017, it has renamed various towns and railway stations, including rebranding Allahabad as Prayagraj and Faizabad as Ayodhya. The ruling regime most recently renamed the Faizabad Railway Junction as Ayodhya Cantt on October 23.
The six-lane Yamuna Expressway, which stretches for 165 kilometres, was inaugurated by then-chief minister Akhilesh Yadav of the Samajwadi Party on August 9, 2012. (SP). It was built under the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) government of then-CM Mayawati in 2007. The 'Taj Expressway,' which connects Greater Noida and Agra, is also known as the 'Greater Noida-Agra Expressway.'
