KMC to rechristen Bagmari Road and Lovelock Street

KOLKATA: The Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) is renaming two roads in the city one after the first martyr of Bengal Prafulla Chandra Chaki and another after Padmavibhushan Ustad Ali Akbar Khan.

Both the proposals have been approved at the monthly meeting of the civic body held on Friday. Interestingly, the rechristening of roads coincides with the centenary of Ali Akbar Khan who was born in 1922.

A senior KMC official said that the eastern part of Bagmari Road in Ultadanga will be named as Prafulla Chandra Chaki Sarani.

Born at Bogra, Bangladesh on December 10, 1888, Chaki came to stay at Kolkata in the year 1906. He was a revolutionary associated with the Jugantar group who carried out assassinations against British colonial officials in an attempt to secure Indian independence.

Chaki and Khudiram Bose tried to kill inhuman British judge Kingsford by throwing bomb on his carriage. Chaki had committed suicide by shooting himself as he did not want to go to the gallows.

The KMC is renaming Lovelock Street in South Kolkata as Padmavibhushan Ustad Ali Akbar Khan Saheb Sarani. Though Khan Saheb was born in Comila Bangladesh in 1922 and brought up in Madhya Pradesh , he would always visit Kolkata. After he established the Ali Akbar College of Music in the city in 1959, Calcutta became his " Home" . He lived in places like Kabir Road, Lake Gardens, Rashbehari Avenue and lastly had his own house in Tollygunge where he lived only for a year.

Even after he settled in the US, he would make it a point to come to Kolkata every year to perform and spend time with his family and friends in the city. Musician Tejendra Narayan Majumdar had requested the Kmc for renaming a road under Khan Saheb as a mark of tribute to him.

Khan Saheb had received the prestigious Padmavibhushan in 1989.