BENGALURU: The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited has introduced new metro tokens that look very much like a perfect collectible item. The main aim of the measure according to BMRCL officials is to attract more opportunities for advertisements and promotion. Unlike the all black tokens that are being presently used, the new tokens are translucent with a picture of the Vidhan Soudha on one side and Kempegowda Fort in Lalbagh on the other. The words Bengaluru metro are written on both sides.
B L Yashvanth Chavan, general manager (operations and maintenance), BMRCL told Express, "We want to monetise the tokens and use it for advertisements. We feel that there is an opportunity to do this so especially by making it look more aesthetic," he says. Modalities such as the pricing of the advertistments are still being decided and the corporation is hopeful that it will elicit a good response from all quarters.
The new tokens were introduced this month and already a batch of around 50,000 tokens are in circulation, adds Chavan. More of the new tokens will be introduced soon. According to UA Vasanth Rao, chief public relations officer and GM (finance), BMRCL the token costs around Rs 80. "We will continue to change the designs of the tokens to break the monotony of the design," he adds
Udita Rai, a city resident and an occasional metro user says, "The new metro tokens looks very nice as compared to the earlier ones." She adds jokingly, "I think I might even want to steal one for a souvenir. it looks that good." When asked if the new aesthetic design would lead more people to try and steal it, Rao says that there were enough safety measures in place to check such malpractices. Rao also adds that the number of missing tokens has come down over the years. There have been many cases of token thefts in the past.