At least 83 stations on Central Railway will be available for private companies, developers, corporates, banks and government agencies to brand their names in front of the railway stations. These will include the world heritage Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus (CSMT), Dadar, and Kurla among other stations as well.
Sources said that they have already received interest for Dombivali and Pen stations for rebranding the names. The Western Railway (WR) had also called for bidders for their railway stations.
The Central Railway has called for expression of interest for bidders to come forward for branding of 83 stations on Central Railway, which includes almost all stations in the suburban section of Mumbai.
“We have already received interest from a developer and an industrialist for co-branding of Dombivli and Pen stations. We have called for an expression of interest and are waiting until May 5. We expect corporates and organisations to come forth for larger stations like CSMT, Dadar, Thane etc. for its branding,” said senior officials from Central Railway.
The CR authorities said that the cost of co-branding of stations will depend on their category namely: A1, A, B, C and so forth. The big stations will cost more than smaller ones. Ideally, the brand name will either come as a suffix or prefix of a railway station. This will be similar to the names of the stations on Mumbai Metro where co-branding exists.
“We will call for a bidding process for railway stations and so it is difficult to gauge the revenue that we could earn under non-fare revenue,” said another CR official.
Meanwhile, the Western Railway had announced the co-branding of its stations earlier this March. “We are in the bidding process right now. We have received interest from private companies for a few railway stations of Palghar and Dahanu,” said a WR official.
To generate non-fare revenue, the railway board has allowed co-branding, station branding or semi-naming rights to railway stations. The scheme is open to central and state government agencies, PSUs and reputed business entities including banks and financial institutions. However, it will not be open to advertising agencies.
Under this policy, the concerned licensee (brand owner) will be assigned the advertising right to prefix or suffix its brand name or logo to the name of the railway station and such brand name shall not exceed two words. The railway official said this scheme is purely a form of advertisement and does not tantamount to change in the name of the railway station.
Co-branding will be allowed at all the places in the station building area wherever the name of the railway station is displayed such as at the entry or exit gates, platforms and concourse areas. For any other area in the station premises, will cost extra which will be as per the process of advertising as carried out by the railways.
Co-branding will not be permitted on the railway tickets, public reservation system (PRS), websites, route maps, announcements through the public address systems, or on the rail display network, where the name of the railway station shall be its original name only.
