Chennai Launches Major Drive to Remove Caste-Based Street Names Across City

Chennai, Oct 2025 : The Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) has launched a massive initiative to eliminate caste-based street names across the city, aiming to promote social harmony and inclusivity. As part of the effort, nearly 3,400 streets will be renamed with titles honouring leaders, flowers, or other culturally neutral terms.

The move follows a Tamil Nadu government directive instructing all local bodies to identify and rename roads, lanes, and public places that bear caste-linked titles.

Superintending Engineer (Bus Route Roads) N. Thirumurugan said that the GCC has sought assistance from the Revenue Department to verify and finalise the list of streets. “We will finalise the list by Monday after cross-checking the official road registers,” he said.

Deputy Mayor Mahesh Kumar noted that out of Chennai’s 35,000 roads and streets, around 3,400 still carry caste-based names. “In the core city zones, most caste names were removed before 2011. The remaining are primarily in the seven newly added zones that were formerly municipalities. All these will be renamed before the November 19 deadline,” he said.

Once the list is confirmed, councillors will hold area sabha meetings in their respective wards to decide new names through public consensus. “We will issue a circular to all councillors shortly. The roads will be renamed based on local residents’ suggestions,” Kumar added.

Officials explained that the renaming will follow a systematic pattern — if a street name includes a caste surname, it will be shortened to an initial; if the entire name represents a caste, it will be replaced with the name of a leader, flower, or neutral word. In cases where the caste name appears as a suffix, only that portion will be removed.

Several such changes have already been implemented across Chennai. For instance, in T. Nagar, G.N. Chetty Road has been renamed Gopathy Narayana Road. In West Mambalam, streets like Srinivasa (I) Street and Balakrishna (N) Street now carry only initials instead of caste surnames.

Among the stretches identified for renaming 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.

Deputy Mayor Kumar added that once the renaming process is complete, the GCC will float tenders to install new 3D name boards with reflective lighting to enhance visibility and civic aesthetics.