Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik renamed the Wheeler Island of Bhadrak district after India's recently-deceased former president APJ Abdul Kalam.
Patnaik hopes the move will encourage the youth to further pursue a scientific temperament. It will be Odisha's humble homage to the legendary scientist in return for his unstinted love towards this Island, chief minister said in the statement.
It mentioned that former chief minister Biju Patnaik had given the go-ahead to defence ministry to establish the missile test range at Wheeler Island on a request from Abdul Kalam.
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Wheeler Island, located off the coast of Odisha, is used as a missile testing facility by the union government. The maiden successful test fire of the land-to-land Prithvi missile was conducted from the mainland and it landed on the then uninhabited Wheeler Island on November 30, 1993.
During his numerous visits to the test range, Kalam was inspired to pen his book 'My Journey'. He has also described the Wheeler Island as his 'Theatre of Action'.
Earlier in the day, Aurangzeb Road in New Delhi was renamed as APJ Abdul Kalam Road.
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