Chief Minister Eknath Shinde had made the announcement last month.
Continuing with the Eknath Shinde-led government's Hindutva push, the Maharashtra cabinet has decided to name the Versova Bandra Sea Link 'Veer Savarkar Setu'.
Chief Minister Shinde had made this announcement on May 28, the 140th birth anniversary of the Hindutva ideologue, and had also said that the Mumbai Trans Harbour Link will be named Atal Bihari Vajpayee Smruti Nhava Sheva Atal Setu. Both these names were cleared by the cabinet today.
The 17-km Versova Bandra Sea Link will connect Andheri to the Bandra-Worli Sea Link and is part of the coastal road project. The MTHL will connect Mumbai and Navi Mumbai and its construction is likely to be completed in December.
The renaming of the two projects is part of a string of such decisions by the Shinde government in its one year in power. While Ahmednagar had been renamed Ahilyanagar after Maratha queen Ahilya Devi Holkar, who was born there, Aurangabad was renamed Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar after Chhatrapati Shivaji's eldest son, and Osmanabad was renamed Dharashiv.
With around a year to go for the assembly elections in the state, the renaming spree is being seen as part of the government's Hindutva push. This was reinforced by a statement from Deputy Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, who had said, "Our government is a Hindutva government. We are the people who take the name of Chhatrapati Shivaji. Under the leadership of Eknath Shinde, we have renamed Ahmednagar Ahilyanagar."
After the announcement on the Versova Bandra Sea Link in May, the Congress had attacked the state government and said that it is renaming places and projects to divert people's attention from the real issues. While welcoming the renaming of Ahmednagar, it had also condemned using the names of those who had played a negative role in the freedom struggle.
Veer Savarkar has been at the centre of several controversies recently, including within the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi in Maharashtra. Less than two weeks ago, the Congress government in Karnataka had approved the revision of Kannada and Social Science textbooks of classes 6 to 10 by removing chapters on Veer Savarkar and RSS founder K B Hedgewar, among others.
In March, after his disqualification as Member of Parliament after being convicted for his 'Modi surname remark, Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi had said, "My name is not Savarkar, my name is Gandhi and Gandhi does not offer an apology to anyone."
This had invited a scathing reply from Congress ally Shiv Sena (UBT) leader Uddhav Thackeray, who had warned of "cracks" in the opposition alliance if Mr Gandhi continued to demean Savarkar.