Chennai, Oct 11 : The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has begun a massive drive to remove caste-based names from at least 3,400 streets across the city, replacing them with names of leaders, flowers, or other socially neutral terms.

The initiative follows a Tamil Nadu government directive instructing all local bodies to identify and rename streets that reflect caste identities.

Superintending Engineer (Bus Route Roads) N. Thirumurugan said the GCC has asked the Revenue Department to verify and finalise the list of such roads based on official road registers. "We will finalise the list by Monday," he said.

Deputy Mayor Mahesh Kumar said that of the city's 35,000 roads and streets, around 3,400 carry caste names.

"In the core city areas, most caste names were removed before 2011. The remaining stretches are largely in the seven newly added zones, which were earlier municipalities. All these will be renamed before the November 19 deadline," he said.

Once the list is finalised, councillors will be directed to conduct area sabha meetings in their respective wards to decide on new names through public consensus.

"The roads will be renamed based on local residents' decisions. We are issuing a circular to all councillors shortly," the Deputy Mayor added.

Officials explained that the renaming process would follow a clear pattern: if a road name includes a caste surname, it will be shortened into an initial; if the entire name denotes a caste, it will be replaced with the name of a leader or a flower.

In cases where the caste name is used as a suffix, only that portion will be removed. Chennai has already seen several such changes in recent years.

For instance, in T. Nagar, G.N. Chetty Road was renamed Gopathy Narayana Road. In West Mambalam, streets such as Srinivasa (I) Street, Balakrishna (N) Street, and Srinivasa (P) Street now carry initials instead of caste surnames.

Among the stretches identified for change are Gengu Reddy Road, Vanniyar Street, Reddy Street in Kodambakkam, Dr. Nair Road, Ramanuja Iyer Street in Washermenpet, Reddy Raman Street in Sowcarpet, and Brahmin Street in Saidapet.

Mahesh Kumar said the Corporation will soon float tenders to install new 3D name boards with reflective lighting once the renaming process is completed.

/IANS