As the city waits for the inauguration of its first underground Metro – the 12.4km Aarey to BKC stretch of the Colaba-Bandra-Seepz Metro 3 route – there are demands for a change in some of the station names to reflect the local history.
The Mumbai Bhumiputra East Indian Samaj and Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, a group representing the original inhabitants of Mumbai’s villages, said that the route passes through villages that still have a significant population of the communities that inhabited the area that became Mumbai. “Many of the villages still survive. It will make sense if the stations are named after the nearby villages,” said Gleason Barretto of MGP.
The group has suggested that Vidyanagri should be renamed as Kole Kalyan, an extinct village that existed where the city’s airport was built. Santacruz East station can be renamed as Vakola, a village that is now a popular residential area, and Seepz be renamed as Kondivita, T2 Airport station as Sahar, and Marol Naka as Marol Gaon. Apart from the airport, facilities like Seepz (Santacruz Electronic Export Processing Zone) have come up on land belonging to the residents of the villages.
The groups have sent the suggestions to the local Member of the Legislative Assembly, the state Chief Minister, and the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd which is constructing the Metro. “Some stations like Poisar and Mogra on Line 7 (currently operating between Andheri (East) and Dahisar (East) have been named after the old villages. While some place names may not be well known and may not be selected for the station names, there are village names like Kalina that are popular,” said Vicky Misquitta of the MGP. There is also a demand for space on the stations to display the products and food made by the residents of the villages.
As Mumbai builds more Metro lines, controversies have arisen over station names. After sections of the 2A and 7 lines were commissioned between April 2022 and January 2023, there were demands that some station names be changed. Some stations were given names of localities that never existed, for example, Lower Oshiwara and Lower Malad. Others were given names not commonly used, like Valnai, an area popularly called Mith Chowky. Two stations on Line 7 were named Ovaripada and Devipada after little-known localities.
