Bengaluru city station to be renamed as Kranthiveera Sangolli Rayanna soon

BENGALURU: Soon you will have to address the Bengaluru city railway station as Kranthiveera Songolli Rayanna (Bengaluru) station. The state government has proposed ministry of railways to change the name of city station and dedicate it to the legendary warrior and army chief of Kittur under the rules of Rani Chennamma during the 18th century. The railway ministry has confirmed to change the name on Wednesday. Sridhar Murthy, senior divisional commercial manager of Bengaluru division of the South Western Railway (SWR) said that a local notification will be issued for the public to formally change the name of the station in a few days. "Post the change in the name of the station, if any one enters the name of the source or destination station as Bengaluru in the online reservation platform, the system will automatically reset the name of the station as Krantiveera Sangolli Rayanna (Bengaluru) station but the code of the station will remain the same (SBS)," he said. The state government had proposed to the Centre to dedicate the change in name to the freedom fighter, on September 14, 2015 through an official notification, and the railway ministry approved the change after consultation with the home ministry, said officials. However, there will no statue or permission for a statue of Rayanna in the station or on platforms. "We will have historical facts displayed for the information of public on Sangolli Rayanna as a part of the change of name," he said. Bengaluru City station, Bengaluru Cantonment and Bengaluru East and the three stations in the city which have the city's name attributed to it. The station was built in 1890 but is now one of the most busiest stations in India. There are about 105 pairs of trains and gets about 1.5 lakh footfalls every day. -TOI