Rajendra Nagar, Delhi


Rajendra Nagar is a residential colony in Central Delhi, Delhi, India. The name comes from Dr. Rajendra Prasad, the first president of India. It is bordered by the Central Ridge Protected Forest on the east and south, IARI on the west, and Karol Bagh on the north. It is a constituency in the Legislative Assembly of Delhi. The current Councillor for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is S.Paramjeet Singh Rana of the SAD-BJP. Raghav chadha of the AAP is the current MLA from Rajendra Nagar.

Overview

Like most of the colonies developed in the 1950s, Rajendra Nagar was primarily a Punjabi refugee colony which came up during the years after the partition of British India in 1947, when several such residential neighborhoods sprang up in the New Delhi area, including other examples such as Lajpat Nagar and Patel Nagar.
Rajender Nagar benefits from links with the Delhi metro. Shankar road divides the Rajendra Nagar into New and Old Rajendra Nagar. Old Rajendra Nagar touches Karol Bagh, which is famous for shopping and eating. New Rajendra Nagar is between Old Rajendra Nagar and Ridge, and is also adjacent to Connaught Place, with Talkatora stadium a short walk away. The locality is posh and very beautiful with many parks in New Rajendra Nagar. Central Park in New Rajendra Nagar is called Nehru Park.

Coaching industry

Rajendra Nagar is home to many coaching institutes. It is one of the two education hubs in Delhi for government job aspirants. However, the striking difference between these two locations is the demographics of students. While, majority of student-population in Rajendra Nagar comprises those preparing for exams conducted by UPSC, Mukherjee Nagar is dominated by a mix of students preparing either for exams conducted by SSC or for civil services exams in Hindi medium. Most notable coaching institutes in Rajendra Nagar are Vajiram and Ravi, Ramanasri IAS & Vision IAS. These are spread between Karol bagh metro station and Old Rajendra Nagar. The streets are filled with sprawling book stores, an ancillary business along with the coaching industry.

Notable people

actor Shahrukh Khan was born here in 1965 at the Talwar Nursing Home, and lived there for more than two decades while studying in Hansraj College and acting in TV series Fauji, Circus and Dil Darya, before moving to Mumbai in 1991 to pursue a career in films. Bollywood singer Jaspinder Narula was born and raised here; her father Swaran Singh Narula being a music director in Bollywood. Shakti Kapoor, Bollywood star, was also born and raised here.
Other known residents included Dilip Kumar, the Bollywood star who lived here for some years, Balraj Madhok a politician of the 1960s, Bollywood actor Shiney Ahuja, actress Divya Dutta and documentary filmmaker Avijit Mukul Kishore. The former Sikh Empire family home was in Rajender Nagar during the 1970s and 1980s. Indian batsman Gautam Gambhir is a resident.