Kolkata Metro | Railway to make policy to let its stations for corporate btanding

Kolkata: As part of its attempt to cut losses by increasing non-fare revenues, Kolkata Metro is working on a policy to let corporates brand all its 24 stations from Noapara in the north of the city to Kavi Subhash in the south.


“The new scheme is called ‘Own Your Station’. Private companies, on payment of a sizeable sum, will get advertisement rights in metro stations and do a variety of branding exercises. They can also brand the stations with the name of the corporate prefixed or suffixed to the existing name,” said M C Chauhan, General Manager of Kolkata Metro. Tenders would be floated soon, he revealed.


A few years ago, several prominent football clubs walked the same path to raise money. Thus, East Bengal (founded in 1920) was called Kingfisher East Bengal and Mohun Bagan (set up in 1889) was known as McDowell Mohun Bagan Athletic Club.


Kolkata Metro, the first underground mass rapid transit system in the country which started operations in 1984, is incurring massive losses. It is believed that for every Rs 100 earned, Kolkata Metro spends around Rs 265.


At Mamata Banerjee’s instance, during her stint as railway minister, several stations were renamed after eminent personalities of Bengal. Tollygunge station became Mahanayak Uttam Kumar. A few other stations, including Garia Bazar, Bansdroni and Birji were renamed Kavi Nazrul, Masterda Surya Sen and Shahid Khudiram respectively.


Metro officials expect that the new plan will offer attractive branding opportunities for corporates to get top of the mind recall as the metro stations are always prominent in the city’s millions of commuting public.


No other mass rapid transit system in the offers such an opportunity, they claimed.


Incidentally, a few new metro lines are under construction in Kolkata all of which are suffering time and cost overrun. If the same branding exercise is extended to all of them, companies will get a huge opportunity to project their products and services.


The Kolkata Metro is the first in the country and records close to 7 lakh footfalls every day over its 27.2 km stretch.



Kolkata Metro | Railway to make policy to let its stations for corporate btanding

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chennai Metro | CMRL releases map of Phase 2 metro project

Image
Chennai: Chennai Metro Rail Limited has officially released a route map for its ambitious phase 2 metro project that will connect far-flung areas of the city through three corridors. In February, Metro Rail floated nine tenders for detailed design consultants and for soil tests. In one of the tenders, it has released a map of phase 2 with 104 stations, covering 107km. The estimated cost of the project is Rs 85,047 crore. Chennai Metro Phase II Network Map (PC: CMRL) However, after a review of the alignment, CMRL officials said they had increased the number of stations to 116 covering a total 107.55km along three corridors. The tenders CMRL has floated are also for corridor 3 (Madhavaram Milk Colony to Siruseri SIPCOT) that covers the IT hub on the OMR and corridor 5 (Madhavaram to Sholinganallur). Corridor 4 that connect Light House to CMBT is likely to be extended up to Poonamallee at an additional cost of Rs 3,850 crore. A feasibility study is at present und...
Read more

Innovative SkyWay technologies: Future Transportation

Image
SkyWay string transport is an energy and transportation communicator of elevated overpass type. It uses electric vehicles on steel wheels riding on specific string rails. The main design differences of this system from other types of railroads of trestle design are pre-stressed tension of the structure, the absence of a continuous solid roadbed, low materials intensity in construction and visual simplicity. The main advantages are economic efficiency, environmental friendliness, durability, reliability, safety and, consequently, high market competitiveness. SkyWay transport is developing in three main areas: high-speed intercity type (up to 500 km/h, and in future, up to 1250 km/h with the transition to a pre-vacuum tube) urban passenger type (up to 150 km/h) and freight type. It has no analogues in its field with the ability to meet the entire range of transportation needs. In future it can be integrated into a unified global energy, information and transportation network, which will ...
Read more

Delhi Metro | DMRC to make phase-III project fully operational by March 2018

The Delhi Metro’s Phase III, an ambitious public transport intervention, will be almost fully operational by March 2018, bringing vast areas of the national capital into the fold of its fast expanding network. Stretches of the Pink and Magenta Lines, which will together measure over 90 km with 61 stations, will be thrown open starting this October and the entire corridors will be functional by next year. The 58-km-long Pink Line, which will connect Majlis Park to Shiv Vihar running along the arterial ring road that encircles the city, will be opened in stages between December 2017 and March 2018, according to the latest Phase III status report. However, a section of the corridor between Nizamuddin and IP Extension in East Delhi may not be operational by March as it is stuck due to issues pertaining to land acquisition. “The date for Nizamuddin to IP Extension section will be worked out after resettlement and rehabilitation issues at Trilokpuri are settled,” the report ...
Read more