Ranchi: Nagar Untari subdivision in Garhwa and its railway station known by the same name in Dhanbad division of East Central Railway will soon be known as Banshidhar Nagar.

The new name will honour a famous Krishna (Banshidhar) temple in the town, 40km towards west from district headquarters Garhwa, bordering Uttar Pradesh. The idol of lord Krishna is of astadhatu.

The Centre has cleared Jharkhand government's proposal to rename Nagar Untari town and station, BJP MP Vishnu Dayal Ram from Palamau said on Tuesday.

The proposal to rename the town and station was sent on March 22, 2018.

Though senior officials of East Central Railway said they did not receive any official communication on this, Ram, who was a former director-general of police before he became a politician, said the renaming had been cleared by Union home ministry, Ram,

"Nagar Untari is identified by its Banshidhar temple. People have been demanding this since long," he added.

In 2016, Ram had organised a cultural fest known as Banshidhar Mahotsav. During the inaugural ceremony, at the behest of local people he demanded that Nagar Untari should be named as Banshidhar Nagar. Chief minister Raghubar Das, who was the chief guest on the occasion, promptly endorsed the demand and directed the government machinery to start working on it.

Thereafter, Ram pursued the case with Union home minister Rajnath Singh and other senior officials of the home ministry.

BJP Chief Whip in the state Assembly and Ram's brother-in-law Radha Krishna Kishore related an interesting anecdote about the temple.

"In 1885, the queen of Nagar Untari estate Devmani Kumari in her sleep heard Lord Krishna telling her that he was in Shivpahari in Modern Sonebhadra district of Uttar Pradesh. After extensive excavations, a 4.5-feet idol of Lord Krishna. It weighed 1,220kg and glittered like gold. The queen wanted to take the idol to her palace. But, the elephant carrying the idol died a a distance from the palace. Attempts to take the idol to the palace failed. People realised Lord Krishna wanted to stay there at the same place," he said

"Then, Radha's statue was brought from Varanasi and a temple was built," he said.