Greater Noida authority mulls changing names of sectors

The Greater Noida authority is mulling to change the names of sectors in the industrial town to make them simpler for residents as well as for the convenience of visitors.

The move comes after the authority received complaints about the sector names on Greek alphabets such as alpha, beta, delta, gamma, omicron, eta, zeta, chi, phi, etc. “These names are complicated and many visitors to Greater Noida face inconvenience to pronounce or identify them with ease”, said an authority official.

Greater Noida authority’s chief executive officer Narendra Bhooshan has formed a committee headed by additional CEO Deep Chand to look into the matter. The committee will prepare a proposal on the change of names of various sectors at the earliest and also seek feedback from residents before finalising on the proposal.

“We have taken the decision because many residents and visitors find it hard to pronounce, identify and remember these names of Greek alphabets. Once the names are changed, we plan to use the old names in brackets so that there is no confusion. The move will definitely benefit citizens as the new names will be numeric and easy to understand and locate,” said Bhooshan.

The authority plans to rename the sectors, both residential and industrial, by numbers for the convenience of the public.

The Uttar Pradesh government established the well-planned industrial town, spread over 38,000 hectares of land, way back in 1991. It has emerged as a hub for industries and affordable housing in the NCR region. “Later, the authority carved the residential and industrial sectors and named them on Greek alphabets in a bid to make them sound hi-tech”, said an authority official, seeking anonymity.

Residents, however, have mixed opinions on the proposed name change.

“It took us two decades to remember the names of residential, commercial or industrial areas. It hardly makes much sense to rename the sectors now,” said Alok Singh, founder member of Active Citizen Team, a residents’ group in Greater Noida.

But many residents have also come out in support of the proposed name change. “The names of the sectors should have been in the local language Hindi or numeric because they are much easier to pronounce. For many, pronouncing names such as ‘phi’ or ‘chi’ is a tough task. I do not understand why such names were chosen in the first place,” said Lokesh Sharma, a resident of Beta-2 sector.