Image courtesy: timesofindia.indiatimes.com In a bid to develop Ayodhya as a profit-generating tourist hotspot, the Uttar Pradesh government has renamed the Faizabad Railway Junction to “Ayodhya Cantt.” This development comes three years after the Faizabad district in the state had been renamed Ayodhya.
The announcement was made through a tweet posted by the official Twitter handle of the Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister’s office on Saturday, October 23. “UP CM Yogi Adityanath has decided to rename Faizabad Railway Junction as ‘Ayodhya Cantt’,” the tweet Chief Minister’s office read.
Earlier, officials at the Lucknow Division of Railways had predicted the footfall at the Ayodhya station to jump at least 12 times from the present daily count of 5,000 after the Ayodhya Ram temple is opened to the public, bringing it on par with Varanasi and Prayagraj.
A notification for the official name change will be issued soon after getting approval from the Central government. This is just of many instances in which the Uttar Pradesh government has undergone the process to change the names of its districts and other locations. Faizabad was renamed Ayodhya in November 2018 during Diwali while Allahabad district’s name was changed to Pryagraj in October 2018.
Likewise, the UP government renamed the Mughalsarai Railway Station after Deen Dayal Upadhyay in June 2018.
Moreover, several groups from all over Uttar Pradesh are demanding a change of name of other locations as well. The Aligarh district panchayat had earlier sent a proposition to the Uttar Pradesh government, seeking a change in the name of the city to ‘Harigarh’.
Another suggestion to change the name of Firozabad district to Chandra Nagar has also been common in the state. Other name change suggestions making rounds in the state include Azamgarh to Aryamgrh and Agra to Agravan.
