Ghaziabad: As part of a beautification drive, Ghaziabad Municipal Corporation has built a gateway with Lord Ram’s bow Kodanda atop it on the UP Gate side of Hindon Elevated Road and installed a 22-foot statue of Ram Lalla on the RNE side of the stretch. Although the civic body’s executive committee approved renaming the stretch as ‘Ram Setu’ in 2024, the road continues to be referred to as Hindon Elevated Road in official records.“In 2024, the GMC board had unanimously passed a proposal which was mooted by mayor Sunit Dayal to name the 10.3-km-long Hindon Elevated Road as Ram Setu,” said a GMC official. “It had also passed the proposal to beautify the stretch. The gateway has been built for Rs 1 crore in red sandstone. The statue has been carved out of stone and has cost GMC Rs 20 lakh.” The gateway will be inaugurated in a few days, he said.
The 22-foot statue worth Rs 30 lakh has been carved out of stone and has been placed at the RNE side of the bridge
Mayor Sunita Dayal said, “With the new symbols on Hindon Elevated Road, it has become a landmark. It is officially Ram Setu and the name will be updated in official records too. I am sure that people too will start associating it with Lord Rama. The bridge should serve as this govt’s continued commitment towards preserving the country’s glorious past and development.”The work on Hindon Elevated Road had started during the tenure of the then-chief minister Akhilesh Yadav and was inaugurated in March 2018 by chief minister Yogi Adityanath. Constructed for Rs 1,147 crore, it connects NH9/DME at UP Gate to Raj Nagar Extension township via Karhera. Though the stretch is banned for heavy vehicles, it serves as the city’s lifeline for lakhs of commuters who travel to Delhi and other NCR districts to reach their destination in the shortest time.The maximum speed permitted is 80 km/h and the 10-odd-km distance is covered in 10 minutes, which would otherwise take more than 40 minutes through busy traffic. The load-bearing capacity of the stretch is 30 metric tonnes and during peak hours it sees a traffic influx of about 4,000 vehicles per hour.
