Coming soon: Branded names for Indian railway stations

As part of the scheme, the licensees will be allowed to add their brand name, up to two words, or their logo to all display boards on station premises. File pic

Railway stations may soon get a brand new prefix or suffix to their current names, as the Indian Railways on Monday allowed rebranding of stations to generate revenue.

"The scheme is open to central and state government agencies, PSUs and reputable business entities including banks and financial institutions. Under this policy, the licensee [brand owner] concerned will be assigned the advertising rights to only prefix or suffix its brand name, not exceeding two words, or logo to the name of the railway station," said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer, Western Railway.

He, however, added, "It is pertinent to mention that this scheme is purely a form of advertisement and is not tantamount to changing the name of the railway station."

Thakur explained that the objective of the policy is to generate non-fare revenue via co-branding at all places on the station premises wherever the name of the railway station is displayed and in the circulating area. He clarified that co-branding shall not be permitted on railway tickets, Passenger Reservation System (PRS), websites, route maps, in announcements through the public address systems, on the rail display network, among others, where the name of the railway station shall be its original name only.