Greater Noida's Delta, Omicron sectors likely to get renamed after 30 years

After over 30 years, names of Greater Noida residential sectors such as Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron could be replaced by numeric figures like Sector 1, 2, 3, according to officials, a move apparently prompted by the Greek alphabet's association with Covid variants.

There has been a demand from a section of residents for renaming the sectors and the local Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has formed a committee to take the decision, the officials said.

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

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

During the meeting, it was 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 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 the western part of Greater Noida. The area is known as Greater Noida (West) or Noida Extension, they said.

For example, there are sectors near the residential sector 'Swarnanagari' which have been named Sector 36 and Sector 37. Similarly Sectors 1, 2, 3, Sector 10, 12 are in Greater Noida (West) although there are no other sectors that 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 on March 31, 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.

The Delta variant was responsible for the first wave of coronavirus in India, and Omicron fuelled the third wave. The third wave was driven by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.