The Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has formed a committee to take the decision on renaming residential sectors such as Alpha, Beta, Delta and Omicron to numeric figures like Sectors 1, 2 and 3, after 30 years.

In the first wave of coronavirus in India it was Delta variant while Omicron fuelled the third wave. The World Health Organisation has also been using Greek alphabets like 'Delta' and 'Omicron' to name COVID-19 variants.

The officials of GNIDA, including the CEO Narendra Bhooshan held a meeting on March 31 to discuss the issue and gave an "in-principle approval" to the proposal, after there was a demand from a section of residents for renaming the sectors.

According to a statement issued by the GNIDA, 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. “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 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 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, as per the officials.

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 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.