Auroville Foundation opened the newly built Outer Ring Road to improve safety and decongest the route as part of Republic Day events.
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Special Arrangement
The unfurling of the national flag, collective vows to uphold Constitutional values and contribute to nation-building marked the 77th Republic Day celebrations hosted by various organisations on Monday.
At Jipmer, Vir Singh Negi, Director, reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to train competent and compassionate medical professionals who uphold the right to health as a core constitutional value.
Addressing the faculty, staff, students, and healthcare professionals, the Jipmer chief paid tribute to the freedom fighters and visionary leaders whose sacrifices laid the foundation of the Indian Republic. Noting that the strength of the Republic is reflected in the health and well-being of its citizens, Dr. Negi reiterated Jipmer’s role in safeguarding this national responsibility in its round-the-clock continual commitment to provide affordable, high-quality, and accessible healthcare services to all sections of society.
On the roadmap ahead, Dr.Negi stated that Jipmer was aligning its growth with the vision of ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ by strengthening patient care infrastructure, upgrading clinical services, and advancing research in areas, such as precision medicine, digital health, and indigenous medical technologies.
He underscored the importance of evidence-based and interdisciplinary research to address diseases affecting the Indian population while pointing to Jipmer’s commitment to inclusive healthcare delivery through its rural health centres, outreach services at Karaikal and Yanam.
Later, Jipmer students presented a variety of cultural programmes.
The Auroville Foundation marked the occasion by opening the newly-built Outer Ring Road, a key public-interest infrastructure initiative conceived to address urgent safety and mobility concerns in the neighbouring Edayanchavadi village and to ensure smoother access for visitors to Auroville.
The project had been undertaken by Auroville Foundation with the support of the Central government and executed by the CPWD with a set of objectives that prioritised the safety of local residents and schoolchildren, and offsetting weekend traffic congestion en route during peak visitor hours, the Foundation said in a press note.
The existing narrow village road in Edayanchavadi experienced severe weekend congestion due to high visitor traffic. This created hazardous conditions for residents — especially children and youth living on the roadside — along with frequent traffic bottlenecks and unsafe mixing of pedestrian and vehicular movement.
The ORR enables vehicles from Kullapalayam and nearby areas to access Auroville directly bypassing the Edayanchavadi residential area. The road was formally opened by G. Seetharaman, Officer on Special Duty (OSD), Auroville
Foundation, Venugopal, consultant, Sindhuja and Ponnusamy, members of the Auroville Town Development Council (ATDC), Antim, Muriel and Joel, representatives from ATSC/ATR, Auroanand, Sanjay, and Sankar, the Visitors Centre team, including and staff members of in the presence of key stakeholders and contributors.
Pondicherry University Vice-Chancellor P. Prakash Babu led the celebrations at the institution by paying floral tribute to the statues of Mahatma Gandhi and B.R. Ambedkar and unfurling the National Flag at the Mahakavi Subramania Bharathi International Convention Centre.
In his address, the Vice-Chancellor noted that the 52.58% female and 47.42% male ratio stood as a testimony to the growing empowerment of women through higher education and employment generation.
The acquisition of Yanam and Mahe campuses from the Puducherry government was aimed at improving the infrastructure. The Pondicherry University had signed six International Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) and four National MoU in the current academic year.
R. Gunasekaran, Registrar, M. Krishna Murthy, Finance Officer, M. Vijayakumar, Librarian, Sadanand G. Swami, Controller of Examinations, deans of schools, heads of departments, faculty members, officers, research scholars and students participated.
The Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth marked the occasion with Vice-Chancellor Nihar Ranjan Biswas unfurling the tricolour and students taking out a march past.
The SBI, Villianur branch, involved its customers in the celebrations alongside staff. Rajadurai Venkatesan, manager, unfurled the flag in the presence of N. Ravi, Vice-Principal of Vivekananda Government Higher Secondary School and others.
Published – January 26, 2026 08:25 pm IST
