Mumbai netizens question bullet train, slam station renaming spree

"Dear Govt. what steps will you do to ensure such accident doesn't repeat at Elphinstone Rd Stn? Answer We will rename it to Prabhadevi," read stand-up comedian Atul Khatri's most popular tweet.It was among the milder barbs angry Mumbaikars lobbed at the state on Friday on social media in reaction to the Elphinstone tragedy.

Inflamed hashtags such as #priorities and #22slainbystate lampooned the state for renaming Elphinstone station as 'Prabhadevi' and going for high-cost projects like the Ahmedabad-Mumbai bullet train when basic infrastructure remained wanting.

The clear, overarching sentiment of this digital fire was that the government was busy fixing what was not broken instead of repairing what was. "Changing station names instead of focusing on improving and maintaining the infrastructure of the stations clearly shows they don't care about the people," said Odell Dias, a digital marketing strategist who refers to the government as "they" in his tweets and speech.

Railway minister Piyush Goyal was not spared either."Please call it Prabhadevi station foot over bridge. Let's be patriotic. We don't like British names. We only like British bridges," tweeted activist Harish Iyer in response to Goyal's tweet which mourned the tragedy at "Elphinstone road foot over bridge".