Refurbished Central Vista Avenue thrown open to the public

The Central Vista Avenue — a 3-kilometre tree-lined road from the Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate — was finally thrown open to the public on Thursday evening after a major redevelopment project involving pedestrian walkways, refurbishing of pathways to mirror the historic architectural character and designated parking and vendor zones. The project was ridden with delays and took 19 months to be completed.

Apart from the new look, the avenue, one of the most visited places, has been renamed as Kartavya Path. The renaming is part of the the government’s policy to ‘shed the colonial past.’ The canopy at India Gate which once housed the statue of King George V, and was empty since it was shifted to Old Delhi’s Coronation Park in 1968, has been readorned with a granite statute of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

The project was initiated in February 2021. Several delays plagued the project, including a major outbreak of Covid-19 and disruptions caused by monsoon. The project missed the original deadline of December 2021 and two more.

Vendor zones will be demarcated and ice-cream carts will have to stay at designated places. Parking for over 1,000 cars and 35 buses have been created.