The Mahayuti government—which consists of the NCP of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar, the BJP, and Chief Minister Eknath Shinde’s Shiv Sena—will now present these new names to the Union government for final confirmation.
Resolved Tuesday, both the assembly and the Maharashtra legislative council overwhelmingly approved resolutions to rename seven Mumbai local train stations.
The new names will now be sent to the Union government for approval by the Mahayuti administration, which is made up of the BJP, the NCP, and the Shiv Sena under the leadership of Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar.
The resolution was proposed by State Minister of Parliamentary Affairs Chandrakant Patil and passed by the Council with a unanimous vote.
It has been suggested that the majority of the stations on the Mumbai local train network have English names because of their colonial past.
The resolution calls for the renaming of Currey Road station as Lalbaug, Sandhurst Road as Dongri, Marine Lines as Mumbadevi, and Charni Road as Girgaon.
The Central Line and the Harbour Line will also use the new name for Sandhurst Road.
Cotton Green station will become Kalachowki, Dockyard Road will become Mazgaon, and King’s Circle will become Tirthankar Parswanath, among other stations.
Notably, Mumbai had already experienced similar renamings, with well-known stations like Victoria Terminus (VT) becoming Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT) and Elphinstone Road becoming Prabhadevi. These renamings contributed to the growing trend of adopting culturally appropriate names for public areas.
Ambadas Danve, the council’s leader of opposition, meanwhile, brought up the topic of renaming the airport in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar city, which is currently known as Aurangabad airport.
Deputy Chairperson Neelam Gorhe, however, turned down Danve’s request for a discussion, saying the relevant minister would address his question at a later time.
The districts of Aurangabad and Osmanabad in the Marathwada region were formerly known as Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar and Dharashiv, respectively, until being renamed by the Maharashtra government.
Minister Dada Bhuse moved the idea in the parliamentary assembly.
Congressman Nitin Raut demanded that the Dadar station be renamed Chaityabhoomi because Dr. B. R. Ambedkar lived in the same neighbourhood and his memorial is located in Dadar.