Govt keen on renaming Ramanagara as New Bengaluru: DyCM

The state government is mulling a proposal to rename the Ramanagara district as Nava (New) Bengaluru, Deputy Chief Minister CN Ashwath Narayan said Saturday.

Ramanagara, which is about 50 km from Bengaluru, was carved out as a district from Bengaluru Rural in 2007.

“We will definitely take it forward in the interest of giving Ramanagara an economic boost,” Narayan, the minister in charge of Ramanagara, told DH. He clarified, however, that he was yet to go through the proposal.

Narayan opined that linking Ramanagara with Bengaluru’s image will help the district improve further.

In the 19th century, Ramanagara was known as Closepet. It was renamed Ramanagara after the Ramagiri hills, which is famous as the location where the Bollywood classic Sholay was filmed.

Former Congress minister DK Shivakumar, who represents Kanakapura in the Ramanagara district, said he has not been consulted on this.

“There are four MLAs in the district. The BJP has the pen and paper. Let’s see what they do,” he said. “Preciously, I had suggested renaming Ramanagara as Bengaluru South,” he added.