Maharashtra Deputy CM Ajit Pawar, in a recently held meeting decided to name the Eastern Freeway after Congress leader and state's former CM, Late Vilasrao Deshmukh. The order regarding this was issued in the presence of officials from finance, transport and other departments, and matters to boost revenue was also discussed.
Pawar, in the meeting, mentioned that the move to name the freeway after Late Deshmukh was made keeping his contribution towards the project, vision and contribution to the state. He served as the CM for a total of seven years and passed away in 2012. The 16.8 km long freeway was then inaugurated in 2013
Earlier, NCP demanded the road to be named after Babasaheb Ambedkar, and had written to CM Prithviraj Chavan in 2014, however, Prakash Ambedkar stated that this was being done with a political motive.