The Western Railway is all set to allow the names of commercial brands to be added to the names of its stations, for a fee. However, it will not name the brands in its announcements and adding the names of individuals to station names will not be permitted.
Under this scheme, a prefix or suffix of the brand name (not more than two words) or a logo will be added to the name of the railway station. Co-branding shall be permitted at all the places in the station building area wherever the name of the railway station is displayed and in the circulating area.
This scheme is open to all Central and state government institutions, PSUs, as well as reputed private companies including banks/financial entities, excluding advertising agencies. The contract for co-branding of stations will be awarded through an open online tendering process for one to three years.
‘‘In a new policy to earn non-fare revenue, WR has decided that government arms and reputed business houses will be allowed to prefix or suffix their brand name or logo to the name of a railway station on all displays in station premises,’’ said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, WR, talking to the FPJ on Tuesday.
The objective of the policy for co-branding of railway stations is to generate non-fare revenue. The idea is to permit the licensee (brand owner) to only prefix or suffix their brand name or logo to the name of railway station and this name shall not exceed two words.
However, this co-branding will not be permitted on railway tickets, public reservation system (PRS), websites, route maps, in announcements through the public address systems, on the rail display network, amongst others, where only the original name of the railway station will be used.
Railways has been trying several ways to earn non-fare revenue, especially by leveraging its outdoor advertising spaces at stations for years. This is the latest bid to get a bigger piece of the pie by monetisation of this space.
