Now You Can Take a Stroll Along Patel Street In Sydney…
As the number of Indian migrants continue to increase, the news that the Blacktown City Council has approved new street names such as Patel Street, Uma Street, and India Parade Street does not come as a shocker.
Nimal and Manish Patel
The developers who inspired the Blacktown City Council to approve the names are Manish Patel and Nimal Patel. The duo are a developer team of real estate professionals who developed houses in the area. Although not related, they share the same surname, but there is a catch; the Patel name is a famous surname among Gujarati natives of India, so thousands of people bear the same surname. Gujarat is a state in Western India and that is where the Patel name originates from.
Some of the most famous Patels in recent memory include the first deputy Prime Minister of India, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, current Home Secretary of the UK, Priti Patel, and Oscar-nominated actor of Gujarati ancestry, Dev Patel. So, having at least one street in Australia bear the famous Patel name is not out of place.
In an interview, Nimal Patel opined that the decision to use Indian names for the streets when developing the real estate project was due to the growing Indian population in the area. The Western suburbs of Sydney is home to a thriving Indian population, so giving some of the streets Indian names will attract more Indians to settle in the area.