NEW DELHI: The revamped
Habibganj railway station in
Bhopal is likely to be renamed as
Rani Kamalapati station. The Madhya Pradesh government has recommended this name to the Centre.
Rani Kamlapati was the widow Gond ruler of
Nizam Shah, chief of
Ginnorgarh.
This gains 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 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.