Hyderabad: While Metro Rail stations have been named based on the nearest prominent location, L&T HMRL has been receiving requests from political parties and people to change the names. Some citizens asked that Gandhi Bhavan station be renamed Exhibition Ground or MJ Market, the New Market station as Malakpet.
Even on the Ameerpet-Hitec City route, which is yet to be opened, the Durgam Cheruvu station is at least 1 km from the lake. In the Old City, the Metro Rail will pass through the Mandi Road, without touching heritage structures. However, stations are being given names like Salarjung museum and Charminar which are about 500 metres away.
There have been requests to change the name of JNTU College station to Nizampet crossroads. Balanagar crossroads is 3 km from the Balanagar Metro Rail station.
Despite the steady increase in passengers, the names of some stations is confusing passengers. This is because there is a difference between the names of RTC bus stops and that of Metro Rail stations. At least 10 stations have apparently different names than that of the location. An official noted that based on the larger area covered, the stations have been named.
Renaming stations is like opening a Pandora’s box. Hyderabad Metro Rail Limited managing director N.V.S. Reddy said, “There are lots of requests coming rename stations. The only application we entertained was Balanagar which is renamed as B.R. Ambedkar Balanagar. No other change is being contemplated. There are hundreds of requests to name after a political leader and different names.”
L&T follows the naming rights concept, in which a word is suffixed to the Metro Rail station. The Prakashnagar Metro station has a prefix “Invesco Prakash Nagar".
It may be mentioned here that naming rights are a form of advertising whereby a company or other entity purchases the right to name a facility or event, typically for a defined period of time.
L&T collects some amount of money as part of the naming rights concept which is practiced all over the world including the Delhi Metro
Commuters want Metro Rail to change its station names to more accurately reflect their locations.
