Local name for global airport?

Hyderabad: Mumbai airport is named after Chhatrapati Shivaji, Kolkata's after Netaji Subhas Bose and Chennai after DMK founder Annadurai. Delhi being the national capital has its airport named after Indira Gandhi, but Sardar Patel's name adorns the airport at Ahmedabad, while Bhubaneswar's airport bears the name of Biju Patnaik. Nagpur's airport is named after Babasaheb Ambedkar and Indore's after Ahilyabhai Holkar, while local freedom fighter Gopinath Bordoloi lends his name to Guwahati airport. Some airport's are named not after local heroes but the place where it stands - this includes the international airport at Cochin which is merely called Cochin international airport and the Rajasansi airport at Amritsar.
Similarly, Bangalore's airport is called simply as Bangalore airport, though there is now pressure to name it after the city's founder Kempe Gowda or engineer-statesman M Vishweshwaraiah. "An airport is a local icon of a city. That is why the naming of an airport is a political decision. And the decision is so taken as to reflect the local pride of the place," said an observer. He pointed out that even in Begumpet airport this local pride factor has been incorporated by naming the domestic terminal after N T Rama Rao.
22/02/08 Times of India

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Categories: airports Feb 2008, New Feb 2008