New Delhi, Sep 9 (PTI) A couple takes a selfie and some youths are busy making Instagram reels while children play in the refurbished lawns watched by elderly people reliving old memories. The hustle and bustle around India Gate is back.
The revamped stretch of rechristened Kartavya Path – from Raisina Hill complex to India Gate – and the verdant lawns surrounding them were thrown open to the public on Friday after two years. The stretch was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi a day ago.
The central attraction is the 28-ft-tall statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, carved out of a monolithic block of jet black Telengana granite that was unveiled by Modi a day earlier.
Young and old, locals and foreigners were seen enjoying the redeveloped India Gate complex, as they took selfies with the 65 metric tonne statue housed in the historic canopy facing the war memorial arch.
Manish Bhandari, a graphic designer drove from Ghaziabad along with his wife, mother, two-year-old daughter and five-year-old nephew to see the revamped India Gate complex.
“I last came here in 2017 and we used to play cricket, but it’s all changed now. The place looks neater and the underpass is a great help,” he told PTI.
Near him, a couple – Raj Kumar, 71, and Madhu Sharma, 68 – sat on newly installed red sandstone gravels reminiscing about the area in the early 1970s.
“Some things are the same and some things have changed. But I feel the revamp was overdue. The place has a fresh appeal for the youth. I used to come here with my wife after marriage. I had come to see the National War Memorial earlier and today I came here after it was shut due to Covid in 2020,” Kumar told PTI.
“I like the new statue, and we have also come to see the drone show,” Kumar said.
Public parks and various institutions were shut in March 2020 after the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic and the successive lockdowns.
A few months later, the Central Vista project’s groundwork began and since then the Rajpath and India Gate complex and the lawns surrounding them were not accessible to the general public.
On Thursday, Modi inaugurated the Kartavya Path and urged people to visit it and take selfies with it and upload them on social media. New signages bearing the new nomenclature of the ceremonial boulevard have been put up on the streetsides.
A senior Culture Ministry official said people are thronging the India Gate area and the ‘Kartavya Path’. Two step-amphitheatres and four stages have been set up on this road where cultural performances are being hosted.
Sources said the events will now be a bit subdued due to the state mourning to be observed on September 11 following the death of British monarch Queen Elizabeth II.
Shahzad Khan, 19, a Jharkhand native who recently moved to Noida, was also among the visitors who enjoyed the first day after the opening of the India Gate complex.
“I have come to Delhi for the first time. So far I have seen India Gate on TV and in films. So, I can’t tell the difference between old and new avatars of it, but I missed the Amar Jawan Jyoti that flickered eternally beneath its historic arch,” he said.
Manish Bhandari hoped that people will exhibit greater civic sense and not litter the streets as some visitors used to do earlier “It is our pride, our heritage, and we all must respect it while enjoying it,” he said, as he took a brisk walk to see the granite statue of Bose.
The statue has triggered a selfie craze and some visitors even chanted ‘Vande Mataram’ and ‘Bharat Mata ki Jai’ while standing in front of the rotary around it. PTI KND NSD NSD
This report is auto-generated from PTI news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
Source: The Print
