How Metro Stations got their name…

Team L&M

This station is Akshardham. Doors will open on the left. Please mind the gap… For the last 25 years and more, you have heard an announcement like this before the Metro pulls into a station. But have you ever thought on how and why that station has been named so? We tell you how some Metro stations in Delhi-NCR got their names…

Tis Hazari Metro Station
Located on the Red Line of the Delhi Metro, the Tis Hazari Metro Station gets its name from Tis Hazari wherein a force of 30,000 Sikhs encamped here under military general Baghel Singh Dhaliwal in 1783, prior to attacking Delhi. Dhaliwal and other leading warriors crossed the Yamuna and captured Saharanpur. They overran the territory of Najib-ud-Daulah, the Ruhila chief, and acquired Rs 1,100,000 from him. In April, Dhaliwal and two other sardars (Rai Singh Bhangi and Tara Singh Ghaiba) crossed the Yamuna to occupy that region, which was then ruled by Zabita Khan, the son and successor of Najib-ud-Daulah. Khan, in desperation, offered Dhaliwal large sums of money and proposed an alliance to jointly plunder the crown lands.

Dhaliwal set up an octroi-post near Sabzi Mandi to collect the tax on goods imported into the city to finance the search and the construction of the gurudwaras. He did not want to use the cash received from the government treasury for this purpose. Most of it was handed out to the needy and poor. He often distributed sweetmeats bought out of this government gift to the people at the place which is now known as Pul Mithai. On March 11, 1783, when the Sikhs entered the Red Fort in Delhi and occupied the Diwan-i-Am,  Mughal emperor Shah Alam II made a settlement with them agreeing to allow Dhaliwal to raise gurdwaras on Sikh historical sites in the city and receive six annas in a rupee (37.5%) of all the octroi duties in the capital.