Prime Minister's Office (PMO) might be an integral part of Manmohan Singh's daily life. But according to the Indian Railways, 'PM' is almost 350 km away from 'PMO'.
PM for railways is the code for Palam railway station in the capital while Pandoli station in the Ajmer division of Rajasthan is referred to as PMO.
Not just the top office, the largest transporter of the country also has a political perspective: it acknowledges UPA, BJP, SAD, BSP, TDP and even DMK. But there is no NDA in its list.
Apart from these common terms in the power corridor, several popular words from daily life are in the railways' dictionary, reveals a first-of-its kind amateur study of the railway station codes.
KS Rama Charyulu, a railway officer, stumbled upon these similarities while surfing through thousands of names of stations as a pastime every Sunday while accompanying his daughter to a local library at Tatanagar. His study has been published in the latest edition of the in-house magazine of the railways.
India has around 4,000 railway stations. Each station has been attributed a unique identity for operational reasons adhering to the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO).
BJP (Bijapur in Karnataka) and CPM (Cholapuram in Tamil Nadu), the codes similar to the names of other regional parties don't belong to the states where those parties are in power. BSP (Bilaspur) lies in Chhattisgarh. DMK (Dilmili) and TMC (Talamanchi) are in Andhra Pradesh, while the southern state's principal opposition party TDP finds mention in faraway at Todarpur station of UP.
Station codes also cover MP, MLA, MLC and even some months like JAN, MAR, APR and MAY. Though the Indian Railways doesn't have a PHD, Moradabad is the most 'educated division' with BBA, BSC and BE.