Indian cities with identical names can be confounding

Lucky for our peripatetic Prime Minister that his team is up on its geography and does not land him in the wrong city like the MP from Jersey (UK, not US) who arrived in Budapest, Hungary, instead of Bucharest, Romania, this week and missed his meetings. The list of top musicians who made exactly the same mistake with the two cities is long — from Michael Jackson and Metallica to Lenny Kravitz and Iron Maiden — but they would be forgiven by fans; not so, politicians. Also, those two capitals are practically next door, so quick remedial flights are possible. But homonymous cities such as, say, Dhaka and Dakar are 12,000 km apart, ruling out any frantic air-dashes. Identically named cities — Sydney, Australia, and Sydney, Canada — pose obvious problems for unwary travellers. Similar airline codes add their own uncertainty as a single letter change could send someone heading for Mumbai (BOM) to Bumbar (BMB) in Congo.

India should brace for similar confusion with Andhra Pradesh's future capital Amaravati. Neighbouring Maharashtra already has both a city and a district with that name, with just one ‘a' less: Amravati. Maybe AP took heart from Chhattisgarh's new capital Raipur, which has many more namesakes — including ones in Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh. But it must be noted that Amravati already has an airport.…