BENGALURU: To boost its non-fare revenues, the Bengaluru Railway Division will soon accept advertisements on all mirrors inside its trains for the first time. Another major step that would be taken in a week's time would be to open up its 23 electric locomotives for advertisements.
Elaborating on these moves, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager (SDCM) Bengaluru Division, A N Krishna Reddy said that the number of mirrors provided per train ranged between 225 and 300. He added, "About 200 sq cm per mirror will be permitted for advertising stickers. The Division plans to float tenders for advertising rights on the 65 trains owned by it, including long distance and short distance ones. shortly."
In a week's time, it also planned to permit advertising on the sides of the electric locos (engine section). "Painting or Vinyl Wrapping will be used on the sides of the locs. The essential markings will be repainted while the remaining area would be used for advertising. 23 electric locos with 9 more that is set to be added to them will go in for this advertising," he said.
Trains are a popular mode of advertising for the outdoor advertising industry.
"The visibility offered by train coaches and locomotives offer brand visibility across remote stretches of the country. The commercial section looks at earning crores per train as the contract would run to a five-year period," the SDCM added.
The Bengaluru Division presently has 11 advertising contracts in trains including Shatabdi, Lalbagh Express, Jan Shatabdi Express, Chennai Express as well as eight DEMU/MEMU rakes. He said, "These include advertising on the exterior and interior of coaches and fetch an annual revenue of 1.73 Crore".