Port Blair, the capital of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, will be renamed as Sri Vijaya Puram, Union home minister Amit Shah announced on Friday.

Shah said that the decision was inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s desire “to free the nation from the colonial imprints”.

“While the earlier name had a colonial legacy, Sri Vijaya Puram symbolises the victory achieved in our freedom struggle and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands’ unique role in the same,” the Bharatiya Janata Party leader said in a social media post.

“Andaman and Nicobar Islands have an unparalleled place in our freedom struggle and history,” Shah added. “The island territory that once served as the naval base of the Chola Empire is today poised to be the critical base for our strategic and development aspirations.”

“It is also the place that hosted the first unfurling of our Tiranga by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose ji and also the cellular jail in which Veer Savarkar Ji and other freedom fighters struggled for an independent nation,” Shah said.

In December 2018, the Modi government had renamed three islands in the Andaman and Nicobar Union territory as a tribute to freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose. Ross Island, Neil Island and Havelock Island were renamed Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose Island, Shaheed Dweep and Swaraj Dweep.

Bose’s Indian National Army, in alliance with the Japanese, had briefly captured the islands from the British during the Second World War. The iconic freedom fighter raised the Tricolour in Port Blair and took charge of the islands in December 1943, renaming the Andamans “Shahid Dweep [Martyrs’ Island]” and the Nicobars “Swaraj Dweep [Self-Rule Island]”.

At the time, Modi also laid the foundation stones for several development projects relating to education, healthcare, skill development, transportation, energy and sports.

Earlier this month, the Congress asked the Union government to suspend all clearances granted to the “short-sighted” Great Nicobar Project.

Expected to cost Rs 72,000 crore, the project involves the construction of a trans-shipment port, an international airport, a power plant, a township and tourism infrastructure spread over more than 160 square kilometres of land.

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