Click to play videoBangalore: The Railways are speeding towards a tie-up with corporate India.
South Western Railways is talking with companies to lend their names to special summer trains, for a small price.
"In India, name is something that companies will always like to associate. We thought why not associate a train name with the company's name so that the company will get good publicity and Railways will get good revenues. So we thought of inviting expression of interest for Brand Trains,” says Divisional Railway Manager, South Western Railway,
Mahesh Mangal.
Companies like Pepsi, Coca Cola, Britannia, Airtel and DTDC are keen on the project.
They will submit expressions of interest to the Railways on Thursday and a deal could be closed as early as April 1.
With that, the name boards on the outside trains could soon become history. If the new idea takes off you could be travelling on a Coca Cola Mail or a Britannia Express this summer.
The brand-trains project also opens up many more avenues of advertising for corporates and could potentially become a big money-spinner for the Railways.
The Bangalore arm earns about a crore of rupees from advertising. And the branded trains concept could add to it significantly.
Sources say depending on the extent of branding, costs will vary between 5 lakh and 50 lakh rupees. The division runs seven holiday specials. So even at a conservative estimate, the railways would earn 35 per cent over last year's revenues.
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