Greater Noida has Omicron as a sector, high time it's changed

The residential sectors in Greater Noida will now be renamed numerically (i.e. Sector 1,2,3...) replacing the Greek letters 'Alpha', 'Beta', 'Delta' and 'Omicron'.

(Credits: PTI)

New Delhi: The residential sectors in Greater Noida named after Greek letters 'Alpha', 'Beta', 'Delta' and 'Omicron' could be replaced by numeric figures like Sector 1, 2, 3. 

According to the Greater Noida authority officials, after over 30 years of their existence, a section of residents has now demanded the authorities to rename the sectors. The officials also informed that a committee has been formed to take the decision.

Earlier, on March 31, GNIDA CEO Narendra Bhooshan had held a meeting with senior officials of the Authority to discuss the issue and gave an "in-principle approval" to the proposal.

In the meeting, the authorities decided that the special committee headed by Additional CEO Deep Chandra would take suggestions and feedback from local residents over changing of sectors' names, according to officials.

CEO Bhooshan has directed the committee to submit its report at the earliest.

The World Health Organisation has also been using Greek alphabets like 'Delta' and 'Omicron' to name COVID-19 variants.

"The names of residential sectors of Greater Noida may be changed soon. Instead of Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta etc., the sectors would be renamed by numbers like one, two, three, four," the GNIDA said in a statement.

"The Authority has also constituted a committee to implement this proposal. The committee will also take suggestions from the residents of Greater Noida. The final decision will be taken after that," it stated.

The officials said that after the formation of Greater Noida in 1991, the sectors were named Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, Omicron, Mu, Zu, Chai-Fi, Pai etc while 1, 2 and 3 were added to these names.

However, there are some sectors named only with numbers in western part of Greater Noida. The area is known as Greater Noida (West) or Noida Extension, they said.

For example, there are sectors near residential sector 'Swarnanagari' which have been named Sector 36 and Sector 37. Similarly Sector 1, 2, 3, Sector 10, 12 are in Greater Noida (West) although there are no other sectors which have numerical names.

"Because of this, there is a lot of confusion in writing, speaking and understanding the names of sectors. The location of these sectors is not known. Keeping this in mind, the Authority is contemplating to change the names of these sectors," a GNIDA official said. In the meeting, it was agreed to change these names.

It was also decided that all the industrial sectors will be named after 'Ecotech' and the names of the institutional and IT sectors will remain the same as Knowledge Park 1, 2, 3, 4, and so on, according to the official.

"All 'Techzone' names will be removed while the names of residential sectors will be with numeric numbers like Sector-One, Two, Three, Four," the official said.

"After the implementation of the decision, on the lease deed of the property, along with the new name, the old name will also be written in parentheses, so that no confusion arises," the official added. 

(With PTI inputs)