Mumbai's Elphinstone Road station renamed as Prabhadevi station

MUMBAI: Mumbai's Elphinstone Road station on the suburban rail network of the city has been rechristened as Prabhadevi station.

The station named after Lord Elphinstone, the Governor of Bombay Presidency from 1853 to 1860, has been rechristened as Prabhadevi in honour of a local deity of the same name and to erase a "colonial" name.

The new nomenclature came into effect from Wednesday midnight. The decision to change the name of the station was approved by the Maharashtra Assembly on December 16, 2016.

BJP and Shiv Sena had long been pressing for changing the name of the station.

After the change of name came into effect, Shiv Sena workers came out with huge banners thanking party leaders for pushing the move.

Mumbai BJP said that it would write to Railway Minister Piyush Goyal, seeking renaming of at least seven more suburban stations.

Welcoming the renaming of the station, Mumbai BJP general secretary Amarjeet Mishra said, "This is really heartening to see Prabhadevi written on the station. It gives a sense of belongingness."

Mishra, who had submitted memoranda to the then railway minister Suresh Prabhu requesting him to change the name of Elphinstone Road station, added that there are a few more stations that need to be rechristened.

"Time has come to rename a few more stations which carry a sense of colonial mindset. We will pursue this issue with the state government and the Railway Ministry," he said.

"Currey Road station should be renamed as Lalbaugh, Churney Road station as Gaon Devi, Sandhurst Road station as Dongri, Grant Road stations as Babu Genu or August Kranti, Reay Road as Ghodapdeo, Cotton Green as Kalachowki, Mumbai Central as Nana Chowk etc," he said.

(With PTI inputs)