MUMBAI, Oct 31: If you begin, you go the whole hog. Or else let it be. That is the credo of Shiv Sena leader of the BEST Committee, Arvind Nerkar who would like Bharatiya Janata Party's State Railway minister Ram Naik to take his railway station name-changing spree beyond just Churchgate and Marine Lines. So commuters should not be surprised if they hear railway announcements saying the ``Chimanrao Deshmukh fast will not halt at Gamdevi Road, Girgaon Road and Mumbadevi''.Nerkar is the latest to join Messrs Ram Naik, Congress MLA Ashok Dhatrak and BJP MLA and Minister of State for Housing Raj Purohit in the grand programme of changing British names for Mumbai's railway stations. So while Dhatrak and Purohit became the first to publicly propose that Churchgate station be renamed Chimanrao Deshmukh and Marine Lines be called Mumbadevi station, Nerkar has proposed that Charni Road be called Girgaon Road and Grant Road be Gamdevi Road.
Nerkar's proposal follows Naik's public assurance that he was all forrenaming several stations. Naik was speaking on October 24 at the inauguration of a coupon validating machine at CST station when Dhatrak and Purohit made the renaming proposal. Naik, as reported in a section of the press then wondered as to the significance of names such as Grant Road and Charni Road.
A representative of the D Ward within which the two railway stations fall, Nerkar sees it fit to suggest that the names be changed. He, however, is not as passionate about it as one would expect him to be. Speaking to The Indian Express Nerkar said that it was only in keeping with the spirit of the changes in the names of Churchgate and Marine Lines that he was making his proposals.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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