Back To Roots: Revamped Habibganj Railway Station May Now Be Named After Rani Kamalapati

The revamped Habibganj railway station in Bhopal is likely to be renamed as Rani Kamalapati station.

Ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Madhya Pradesh, the state government has recommended this name to the Centre.

Rani Kamalapati was the widow Gond ruler of Nizam Shah, chief of Ginnorgarh.

The renaming of Habibganj assumes significance, considering that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate this redeveloped station on Monday, the day his government launches the Janjatiya Gaurav Diwas, a week-long celebration of the contribution of tribal leaders.

Gond comprises the largest tribal group of India with more than 1.2 crore population. Linguistically, Gond belongs to the Gondi–Manda subgroup of the South Central branch of the Dravidian language family.

This will be the second such redeveloped station after Modi was re-elected in 2019. The earlier one was in Gandhinagar. The world-class railway station with airport-like facilities has been revamped in public-private partnership (PPP) mode at a cost of Rs 450 crore.

The modern station will have several features such as segregation of passengers based on arrivals and departures, enough sitting arrangement at platforms, lounges, concourse as well as dormitories and retiring rooms.

There are about 400 major stations including New Delhi which have been shortlisted for redevelopment across the country.

Earlier, Allahabad and Mughalsarai stations were renamed as Prayagraj and Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhaya stations respectively.