Mahatma Gandhi Road (MG Road), popularly known as Bandar Road, ( te, బందర్ రోడ్) 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. Boulevards were originally circumferential roads following the line of former city walls. In American usage, boulevards may ...

and major road in the

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

city of

Vijayawada Vijayawada, formerly known as Bezawada, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh and is a part of the state's Capital Region. It is the administrative headquarters of the NTR district. Its metropolitan region comprises N ...

.The road starts at Benz Circle, 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 (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

, the inspirational leader of the

Indian Independence Movement The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal ...

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.

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