Sanskrit soon to replace Urdu on Railway Station Signboards
রেল স্টেশনের সাইনবোর্ডে উর্দুর স্থলে সংস্কৃত শীঘ্রই

January 20: Aideu Urdu, welcome Sanskrit! No more Urdu railway signboards in Uttarakhand! The names of railway stations written in the Urdu language on station platform signboards in the state of Uttarakhand will now be written in the Sanskrit language.

The move is in keeping with the Railway Manual which says the name of a railway station on platform signboards should be written in the second official language of the state concerned after Hindi and English, Chief Public Relations Officer, Northern Railway, Deepak Kumar said. “Instead of Hindi, English and Urdu, the names of railway stations on platform signboards across Uttarakhand will now be written in Hindi, English and Sanskrit,” he said.

In 2010, the Uttarakhand government had become the first in the country to give Sanskrit the status of second official language. The then chief minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank had said that he intended to promote Sanskrit in the state. Himachal Pradesh followed suit in 2019.

The railway stations which will have Sanskrit names in Uttarakhand include Dehradun, Haridwar, Roorkee, Laksar, Raiwala, Doiwala, Rishikesh, among others.