At a time the railways are talking big about introducing bullet trains and high-speed elevated corridors, it is looking at sponsorships for certain necessities which have become basic in keeping with the times.
For instance, the Central Railway has asked corporate firms and public sector units if they could dip into their corporate social responsibility kitties to chip in funds for 50 luggage trolleys. The trolleys, quite like the ones used to cart luggage at airports, are wanted for the outstation section of Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus.
In return, the sponsor firms will be allowed to have their logo and advertisements on the luggage trolleys.
This move is the latest in a series of initiatives by the railways to outsource passenger amenities to private firms in return for in-station advertising. However, what is worrying, say some railway officials, is that some of these projects are too important and basic to be made a part of this advertising trade-off.
An official, who asked not to be named, said there is a plan to install closed-circuit television cameras in ladies’ compartments. “Isn’t this a project that should be done by the railways as a women-passenger safety measure? But it’s being done by a private firm which will get advertising rights in return for setting up the camera system in the coach,” said this official.
A plan that saw television sets installed in local trains by a firm in return for advertisements floundered on Western Railway and is on its way out on the Central Railway.
Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus has become a hub of television sets and rotating monitors that provide a host of information to passengers using the terminus.
However, all these are products of the advertising trade-off, though some railwaymen say they should have been set up by railways as passenger amenities irrespective of their revenue-earning capacity.
However, divisional railway manager Mukesh Nigam defended the railway’s move as a clever one rather than one arising out of empty pockets. “It’s about using advertising in a way that it brings amenities for passengers. It helps the railways, corporates and most importantly passengers. I don’t see any harm in this,” Nigam said.
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