In a first, the Indian Railways has decided to allow government organisations and reputed business houses to showcase their brands along with the names of railway stations.
To generate non-fare revenue, the national transporter on Thursday rolled out a new policy to permit the licensee (the brand owner) to prefix or suffix the brand name or logo to the name of the railway station and such brand name shall not exceed two words.
This would purely be a form of advertisement and not tantamount to change the name of the railway station. However, co-branding would not be permitted on the railway tickets, Passenger Reservation System, websites, route maps, in announcements through the public address systems, on the Rail Display Network etc where the name of the railway station shall be its original name only.
Maximise revenue
To maximise revenue from co-branding, Zonal Railways were authorised to consider clubbing of railway stations for bidding in clusters. A note on the policy said that co-branding would be permitted at all places in the station building area wherever the name of the railway station is displayed. In addition to the prefix/suffix option, the licensee would also be given advertising rights for the brand in the passenger circulating area.
Steps would be taken to make sure such prefixing/ suffixing of brand names does not adversely impact clear visibility of the station name which is essential for train operations. However, co-branding would not be permitted in railway stations named after eminent personalities, national leaders, martyrs etc.
Exclusions
Among the list of exclusions were surrogate advertisements, advertisements of drugs, alcohol, cigarette, tobacco items, advertisements linked directly or indirectly to items of goods that are prohibited under law. Earlier, the Metro Railway had allowed use of its station names for use by commercial brands for a fee.
