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Namma Metro Finally Wakes Up And Decides To Display Ads Inside Trains, But Only In ‘Less-Congested’ Longer Ones
Trains on the Purple Line of the Namma Metro in Bengaluru (Jagdeesh MV/Hindustan Times via Getty Images)
Seven years after it began commercial operations, the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL) has finally decided to augment its revenue stream by displaying advertisements inside coaches, reports The Times of India. However, the ads will be limited to the interior of trains as the corporation feels wrapping the exterior of trains would harm its identity.
However, BMRCL chief public relations officer U A Vasanth Rao has said that advertisements will only be placed inside six-coach trains because and not in three-coach trains. BMRCL currently has one six-coach train with Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML) set to deliver the remaining by next June.
Namma Metro has an average ridership between 3.6 lakh and 4 lakh passengers per day, translating into revenues of Rs 90 lakh to Rs 1.3 crore in a day. It has limited options for advertisers, mostly on pillars of the metro that netted it Rs 12.5 crore in 2017-18. Revenue from ads was Rs 4 crore between April and June 2018.
Despite a steady increase in ridership, the corporation reported a loss of Rs 538 crore in the last financial year. In April, the Karnataka Electricity Regulatory Commission (KERC) reduced the rates for power supplied for metro and suburban rail operations.
Across India, metro rail operators have capitalised on their real estate to supplement revenue flow. Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) that operates the 10 km-long Line 1 in Mumbai, is the best know example of this. MMOPL currently leases out retail spaces at stations, and displays advertisements on the body of trains, inside them, on the pillars of the metro and also on the tokens issued to passengers.
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