Mumbai: In the wake of the Maharashtra assembly welcoming a recommendation to change the name of Elphinstone Road station to Prabhadevi, there have been various demands for the names of other stations to be changed as well. Though nothing on this subject has been declared officially, an online petition has been started in opposition to any such move.
The petition has already crossed than 3,000 signatures and is increasing with every passing hour.
Titled ‘Leave the station names as it is Mumbai’, the petition reads, “Yes Britishers have left us long back but changing the Mumbai suburban station names is not something a Mumbaikar is looking for. Please leave the station names as they have been an integral part of our childhood and history. Focus on the improvement of the stations rather than their names.”
Many people who have commented on the petition page and signed it have expressed similar sentiments. “I believe changing the name does not achieve anything, and it has so far always been a political propaganda than something actually beneficial (sic),” said Ashley Suvarna, who has supported the petition.
However, Rajendra Aklekar, former journalist and author of Halt Station India — which chronicles the rise of India’s rail network — claimed that after coming across reports of station names like Marine Lines and Grant Road being changed to Sonapur and Gamdevi respectively, he checked with officials and found out that no such proposal for the same existed. “There are some people who claim that if station names have to be changed, they can be given original names and hence names like Ghodapdeo came up. However, there are no such proposals. It is a long procedure and it was up for Elphinstone which came up in this session of the House and hence it got changed,” he said.
According to Mr Aklekar, there existed a mill named Elphinstone after which the road and the station were named. When The Asian Age on Tuesday asked CM Devendra Fadnavis if a proposal to change the names of the stations existed, he replied in the negative.
