The issue concerns renaming the road in front of the Bhutan embassy to commemorate 100 years of the Wangchuk dynasty, a request from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). But the civic agency says the road cannot be renamed since it is named after Chandragupta. Result: an idea-blockade that has led the civic body into a stretch-hunting trip.

With Bhutan gearing up for coronation of its fifth king from Wangchuk dynasty, the MEA had earlier sent a request to name the road running as ‘Wangchuk Centenary Marg’.

The civic body has now identified a 210-metre segment of the road that bends along a park before leading on to Singapore and Nigeria embassies. The problem, an NDMC official said, is it’s “rather odd” to name a stretch in front of Singapore or Nigeria embassy after the king of another country. “Other embassies might object to it,” the official said.

The agency has now written back to the ministry, with a rider: “consider guidelines before making such requests”.

“We usually refrain from changing names of roads because they are part of public memory and can cause inconvenience,” the NDMC official said. As per 1975 guidelines of the Ministry of Home Affairs, no authority can rename a road — a road can be renamed only after special recommendations from the MHA.

That aside, officials said, there are not any roads left unnamed in New Delhi area. “Most roads have been named; we don’t have a record of how and when they were named, but there are hardly any roads left to name after anyone.”

Last year, too, NDMC was put in a spot following an MEA request: to name one of the crossroads in the area after Ahmad Shah Massoud, the late Afghan war hero. After much juggling, the ministry had to finally make do with a stretch near Norway embassy named after Massoud.

Foreign heroes aside, the civic body is also battling with local NGOs’ requests to rename Panchkuian Road after B R Ambedkar, and Talkatora Road after Baba Omkar Marg — an appeal from Delhi Congress president Jai Prakash Aggarwal. NDMC had recently rejected a request to name North Avenue after former president Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed.