Mangaluru: Mangalore is now officially ‘Mangaluru’. District in-charge minister B. Ramanath Rai declared the change of name by sending-off a bunch of balloons tagged with ‘Mangaluru’ into the atmosphere during the district-level Kannada Rajyotsava celebrations, which was organized in the city’s hallmark Nehru Stadium on Saturday.
Besides, twelve cities in Karnataka woke up to new names. The state government issued a special gazette notification on Friday to bring the new names into effect from Saturday.
Now, Bangalore will be called Bengaluru, Bellary will be called Ballari, Belgaum will be called Belagavi, Hubli has become Hubballi, Tumkur is Tumakuru, Bijapur has changed to Vijayapura, Chikmagalur to Chikkamagaluru, Gulbarga to Kaburagi, Hospet to Hosapete and Shimoga will now be known as Shivamogga.
Besides the change of name of the city from Mangalore to Mangaluru, entities such as Mangalore International Airport, Mangalore City Corporation, Mangalore Railway and Mangalore University may also switch over, based on the notification.
Among the entities, those which have their names written in Kannada, need not change, while Union government entities, which have their signboards in English, may need some time to change. Many boards in the city, including that of the Mangalore City Corporation, will have to be changed and this could happen in the days to come.
Deputy Commissioner A.B. Ibrahim said the gazette notification on name change has come. But it would not have any big impact as most official correspondence is in Kannada. Mangalore University registrar P.S Yadapadithaya said they are yet to receive the notification. Director of the airport J.T. Radhakrishna said the airport would abide by the State government notification.
