Alagiri wants Egmore station be re-named after Karunanidhi

Chennai: In making that dramatic poll-time proclamation on renaming the historic Chennai Central Railway Station after the legendary actor and former Chief Minister MGR, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has granted the boon prayed for long by the NDA ally, the AIADMK, and could have even won some votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections in the hostile Dravidian land. But the name-change could cause huge confusion among travelers from far and wide, wail the rail users.

"We respect MGR but we must respect the common man too; we must take into consideration the shortcomings of a rustic rail traveler from the north, say even Modiji's Varanasi, coming down for pilgrimage. This guy has known the Chennai Central for ages, from even his grandfather's stories of his India. Now it would take him a long time and some harrowing searching on the maps to locate MGR Station", says Edward K., a 'regular on the broad-gauge'.

"Changing the name as MGR Station will surely cause confusion. Perhaps the railways can add Chennai to it and call it MGR-Chennai.  When the Bangalore railway station was changed to 'KSR', they added Bengaluru to it and called it 'KSR Bengaluru.' People travelling from afar or people who are unfamiliar with the station will not be confused then", said Bhaskar K, member of the Railway Passengers Association and Divisional Railway Users Consultative Committee.

In any case, it remains to be seen how the name-change at Chennai Central will happen and when, since Railway Minister Piyush Goyal might find it tough to clear the file and pass the order before the Election Commission announces the LS polls and the Code comes into force.

Also, while conceding the long-pending AIADMK demand for re-naming the Chennai Central after MGR, the PM has kept mum on their two other 'similar' demands - conferment of Bharat Ratna to C N Annadurai and Jayalalithaa. Perhaps that would come during his future poll trips to Tamil Nadu.