Railways takes 16 years to rename a station

KOCHI: The Kurrikad Railway Station at Chottanikkara will now be known as Chottanikkara Road Railway Station. Residents welcomed the Railways approval to change of name of the station. It all began in 1996 when ticket agent V G Rageshwari who has been working at the station since 1981, approached the then-panchayat president with the request to change the name of the station.In 1996, the panchayat president C V Ouseph forwarded the various passenger association letters and application to the Railway Board. The letters suggested that the name change would be beneficial for Chottanikkara area which is developing into a town. Since, Kurrikad village is not known to many people, locals felt Chottanikkara Road Railway Station would be a better name for the station.Later, Chottanikkara grama panchayat and Udayamperoor grama panchayat passed petitions to the Railway Board and approached the then-District Collector with the request, who sent a letter to Thiruvananthapuram. Finally in 1998, the Thiruvananthapuram Transport Secretary sent the approval to the Collector. However, the move hit a roadblock when the State government did not show much interest in pushing the application to the Railway Board.But undeterred by the government’s lackadaisical attitude, requests for the name change continued pouring in from various passengers associations and the likes.Following this, in September 2005, the State government sent a gazetted vide stating that the name change has been concurred by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs. In April this year, all the signages leading to the station display the new name - Chottanikkara Road Railway Station.