Medavakkam-Sholinganallur road will now be called as Semmozhi Road

The arterial Medavakkam-Sholinganallur Road in the city where the new campus of the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) is located, will be renamed as Semmozhi Road, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin announced on Saturday.

'Semmozhi' means classical language in Tamil.

The new campus of CICT in Chennai, established at a cost of Rs 24 crore and fully funded by the Centre, was recently inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Though there are numerous roads named after prominent personalities including former chief ministers, this is the first time a road is being renamed after classical Tamil here.

Besides, the Chief Minister presented the Karunanidhi Semmozhi Awards to 10 eminent literary personalities for their exemplary contribution to the Tamil language and literature at a function held at the Anna Centenary Library in Kotturpuram here.

The award, instituted by the CICT, carries a purse of Rs 10 lakh and a citation for scholars who have contributed to Semmozhi Tamil research through diverse fields including archeology, epigraphy, numismatics, literature, linguistics, translation, fine arts and literary research.

The recipients of the prestigious awards in chronological order are Prof V S Rajam, senior lecturer of department of South Asian Regional Studies, University of Pennsylvania (for the year 2010); Pon Kothandaraman, former vice-chancellor of Madras University (2011); Prof E Sundaramurthy (2012); Prof P Marudhanayagam, former registrar of Puducherry University (2013); Prof K Mohanarasu, former HoD of Madras University (2014); Prof Maraimalai Ilakkuvanaar of Presidency College (2015); Prof K Rajan of Puducherry University (2016); Prof Ulrich Nicholas, head of the Institute of Indology and Tamil Studies, Cologne University in Germany (2017); poet Erode Tamilananban of New College (2018) and Prof K Sivamani of Thiruvalluvar College (2019).