Indian Railways wants to increase revenues, but not fares

Indian railways, which has been low on cash for a long time, has tried several measures like vinyl wrapping and branding of trains to generate revenues, but none of these measures include a rise in fares.

Under Suresh Prabhu’s ministry, newly constituted non-fare revenues (NFR) directorate is aiming to increase NFR for railways to Rs 1,500 crore by the end of this fiscal. As of now, NFR stands at Rs 300 crore per year.

The directorate is working closely with private consultants like KPMG and EY, so that it can further to monetise railway assets.

Out of all the projects in the pipeline, the directorate is most hopeful about the proposed Rail Display Network (RDN), and expects it to generate Rs 3,500 crore annually by the end of the sixth year of its launch. A centrally managed system, RDN plans to put up an integrated network of over 200,000 multipurpose digital screens inside 2,175 railway stations across the country.

"The display units will show rail-related information on half the screen and ads on the other half. The idea is to use eye-ball capture of the specific information seeker or waiting passenger to earn revenue from 50 per cent surface area," Ranjan Thakur, executive director for NFR, told ET.

"It will not only increase passenger satisfaction with timely information, it will be a significant source of revenue for railways. It will take OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising to a new level," he said.

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