Pune-based social organisation Sarhad has renewed its call for the Mumbai-Guwahati Express to be named after Bharat Ratna recipient Dr Bhupen Hazarika, placing the proposal before the Union government during the musician’s birth centenary year. Beyond commemorating a cultural figure, the request highlights how India’s rail network can also serve as a visible bridge between regions with distinct histories, languages and cultural identities.
The organisation has asked for Train Nos. 15647/15648 to be designated the Bhupen Hazarika Express, arguing that the route connecting Mumbai with Guwahati reflects a wider cultural geography that Hazarika himself helped shape. The proposal was formally communicated to the Prime Minister on August 22. The appeal is not new. Sarhad has been pursuing the naming proposal since 2015, when it approached the then Railway Ministry with the same request. The renewed submission comes as the country marks 100 years since Hazarika’s birth, giving the longstanding proposal fresh relevance.
Hazarika’s cultural influence extended well beyond Assam. His music and public work created connections across linguistic and regional boundaries, including between the Northeast and metropolitan centres such as Mumbai. Naming a major inter-city train after him would therefore place that legacy within an everyday public infrastructure system used by workers, students, families and long-distance travellers. For India’s rail network, such symbolic naming can also have a wider civic role. Railways are among the most visible pieces of national infrastructure, physically connecting regions while carrying stories, languages and traditions between cities. A train associated with a major cultural figure can create a public reminder of those connections without requiring a separate cultural institution or destination. Sarhad has also referred to earlier initiatives involving Hazarika that used music and cultural engagement as tools for reducing social tensions. The organisation says it continued related programmes after his death with the involvement of his family. The latest request includes another historical proposal from 2015. Sarhad had sought the naming of the Naharlagun-Guwahati Intercity Express after Lummer Dai, an Arunachal Pradesh writer recognised for his contribution to Assamese literature and links between Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
The broader issue is how infrastructure can reflect India’s cultural diversity without reducing regional identities to ceremonial branding. Transport links already create economic and social connections; their naming can reinforce those links when rooted in genuine historical and cultural associations. Any decision on the proposal would rest with the appropriate railway authorities and the Union government. For now, the request places cultural recognition alongside the more familiar economic and mobility functions of the Mumbai-Guwahati rail corridor, highlighting the potential of public infrastructure to strengthen a sense of connection across geographically distant communities.
