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Kathmandu Tuesday October 30, 2001 Kartik 14, 2058.
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Funny street names
The Mayor along with the elected members of the
Kathmandu Municipality deserve a big pat on their backs for accomplishing a stupendous
task of naming all the streets, lanes and alleys in the capital. The task deserves even
greater appreciation for the fact that each and every house has now been scientifically
numbered. One must express appreciation where it deserves, and this is just the right one.
But this has also raised a little confusion among people like me, may be due to sheer
ignorance of the scientific process adopted by the wise municipal authorities.
It has been observed that in the process of
naming the streets some of the traditional roads have been renamed with names that can
best be described as ridiculous. There could be many such instances but I would like to
name just a few examples which I have come across. The road previously known as
Tripureswar, named after the famous Tripureswar Shiva temple built in 1877 BS by Lalita
Tripurasundari, queen of King Rana Bahadur Shah, has been renamed Tripura Marg. Similarly,
the main road connecting the Bagmati Bridge crossing and the Babar Mahal crossing on the
highway leading to Tribhuban International Airport, previously known as Thapathali since
the time of Janga Bahadur, has got a bizarre name, Prasuti Marg, called after the Prasuti
Griha (Maternity Hospital) , which is located in that area.
Couldn’t these roads, that also have
historical background, be allowed to retain their traditional names like Tribupreswar Marg
and Thapathali Marg? Couldn’t our wise municipal authorities be a little more
sensible in choosing new names? Now that the names have been given, would it be beyond the
dignity of the authorities to realize their mistakes and take steps to correct them before
the concerned people of the area openly reject the ridiculous new names and discard the
given name plates?
J D Baidya
Thapathali, Kathmandu |
