Mahatma Gandhi Road (MG Road), popularly known as Bandar Road, is a

boulevard A boulevard is a type of broad avenue planted with rows of trees, or in parts of North America, any urban highway or wide road in a commercial district. In Europe, boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former ...

and major road in the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

city of

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

.The road starts at

Benz Circle Benz Circle is not only a busy junction and also a major Residential and Commercial Locality in the East - Central part of the city. It is one of the most expensive commercial and residential locations in Andhra Pradesh land values near Benz Ci ...

, busiest traffic circle in the city and continues to Avatar Park, where it connects to Eluru Road which is also a major road. It runs almost parallel to the Bandar Canal. The National Highway 9 (NH 9) runs parallel to this road on the other side of the Bandar Canal, merging into Bandar Road at Benz Circle. The name "Bandar" was originally the name of Machilipatnam Road, which the current Bandar Road intersects. Its official name comes from

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

, the inspirational leader of the

Indian Independence Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events in South Asia with the ultimate aim of ending British Raj, British colonial rule. It lasted until 1947, when the Indian Independence Act 1947 was passed. The first nationalistic ...

in the early twentieth century.

History

Bandar Road's has an average width of although it is not of uniform width throughout. This road's creation altered the landscape of Vijayawada and was the catalyst for the erection of

Multiplexes In telecommunications and computer networking, multiplexing (sometimes contracted to muxing) is a method by which multiple analog or digital signals are combined into one signal over a shared medium. The aim is to share a scarce resource—a ...

and the Prominent Building.

Golden Mile Project

MG Road in Vijayawada is home to the Golden Mile Project, India’s first smart street initiative. Covering a 2.9 km stretch from the Police Control Room to Benz Circle, it was launched as a Proof of Concept for the Smart City initiative by the Government of Andhra Pradesh. Supported by

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc. (using the trademark Cisco) is an American multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develops, m ...

, the project provides facilities such as free Wi-Fi, intelligent street lighting, smart parking, and digital kiosks. The total cost of ₹7.83 crore was shared between Cisco, the Andhra Pradesh Urban Finance & Infrastructure Development Corporation, and the

Vijayawada Municipal Corporation Vijayawada Municipal Corporation (VMC) is the civic body that governs the city of Vijayawada, second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. History The Vijayawada Municipality was created on 1 April 1888. It was named as a select ...

. The project enables real-time monitoring through the City Digital Platform at the municipal office. It includes 101 surveillance cameras, with some capable of calculating traffic density and providing live reports. Additionally, 35 Wi-Fi access points and 240 smart solar-powered lights were installed for public use. Parking sensors help reduce congestion, and motion sensors manage traffic and detect violations. The project also introduced Remote Expert Government Services, allowing citizens to communicate with officials via video calls.

Culture

MG road is the highly influential road in the city both culturally and economically. It is the destination for the city people for fun and entertainment because of its high end shopping malls, theaters, hotels, restaurants, food courts and cafes. It is also seat of Collector Office, Vijayawada. Indira Gandhi Stadium, Bapu Museum, Swaraj Maidan (PWD Grounds) are located on this road. Since December 2014, a midnight food court is organised on this road near Indira Gandhi Stadium until 2:30 am. and film theaters operate until 2 am, which results in crowd flow whole day. Many events in the city happens on this road like Happy Sunday and other people gatherings, marathons. City exhibition, Book Festival and other premium events are organised in PWD Grounds every year.

Controversy

In December 2005, Vijayawada city officials decided to widen the road to without warning. This decision involved the immediate demolition of one wall of the Akashvani (All India Air) radio station and a neighboring bus shelter. The radio station, given no forewarning of this road expansion prior to the project's initiation, requested that the council order monetary compensation for the property's subsequent devaluation; and immediate reconstruction of the demolished wall.

References

{{Vijayawada topics Roads in Vijayawada