Delhi Metro to see more digital ad walls

: Over the next few months, the Delhi Metro plans to go digital in a big way. Its busiest stations would soon have giant digital walls with advertisements and information peering down at commuters, apart from smaller digital information display boards for passengers.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) had made the change at its ITO metro station recently, installing a number of 12X6 square feet ‘digital walls’ meant to display advertisements. More such digital walls are now going to come up shortly at Rajiv Chowk, Kashmere Gate, Central Secretariat, New Delhi and Chandni Chowk metro stations.

At 16x8 feet, the digital walls that are now coming up are bigger than those at ITO metro station. These are expected to be installed at five of the busiest Delhi Metro stations in the next two months, said a DMRC spokesperson.

The spokesperson said that these huge digital walls would have multiple screens too, so that different passenger information and awareness messages can be displayed at the same time. “These video walls can be divided into four or six parts, which can show train timings and other information and messages.”

Revenue generation

For the cash-strapped DMRC, these digital walls are also an alternate source of revenue generation, which is slowly set to be expanded across the vast Delhi Metro network.

“Digital is coming up in a big way and you will find digital displays at more stations very soon,” DMRC Managing Director Mangu Singh told The Hindu .

The DMRC is also soon going to introduce smaller digital LED screens at its ticket counters. The DMRC spokesperson said that 25 LED screen of 42 inches have already been procured and are ready for installation.

“The LED screens will have passenger related information displayed on them. This would include fares, last and first train timing, security related messages etc.,” the spokesperson said.

DMRC believes that apart from being a marketing venture that will bring in some much needed revenue and help disseminate passenger information, the sleek and contemporary digital walls adds to the visual appeal to its stations too, giving them a more international look.