Lucknow, June 7: After nearly a year, the Mughalsarai railway station was officially renamed as the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Junction on Monday as the Centre approved the Uttar Pradesh governments proposal.
Last year, the central government had cleared UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath's request to rename the station, in a bid to revive the legacy of Upadhyaya, who was found dead in 1968 in the junction itself. After the approval of the state cabinet, the proposal was forwarded to the Railway Ministry.
It was then sent to Raj Bhavan for the Governor’s assent, which was given yesterday. Mughalsarai is also the birthplace of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri.
The notification said the station’s name has been changed to ‘Pt Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Junction’ with immediate effect. The Centre gave its in-principal approval for renaming the station, among the busiest in the country, last year. The move drew flak from opposition parties which accused the ruling party of attempting to tamper with history.
The junction, the fourth busiest railway station in the country, is located on the main Howrah-Delhi Grand Chord line. The station contains the largest railway marshaling yard in Asia. It is 12.5 km long and handles around 1,500 wagons daily. The largest wagon repair workshop of the Indian Railways is also located here.