Country’s first branded train flagged off

The first branded train of Indian Railways named after a corporate brand – Kurkure – pulled out of the railway station in Bangalore on Thursday evening enroute to Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu.

The Nagercoil-bound train will henceforth be called as “Kurkure Bangalore-Nagercoil Express” as part of the Indian Railways’ new initiative to brand trains under which the brand name would feature along with the train’s name in all announcements, reserved tickets, reservation charts, destination boards etc.

In return, the corporates will not only provide cleaner coaches and toilets on the special trains, but also pay an advertisement fee to the Railways. However, passengers on board the Nagercoil-bound train received free sachets of Kurkure as a first-day gesture on Thursday.

After flagging off the tri-weekly Kurkure Bangalore-Nagercoil Express, Divisional Railway Manager of Bangalore Division Mahesh Mangal told reporters that two more branded trains would follow from Bangalore. They are Kurkure Bangalore-Hubli Summer Special and Kurkure Bangalore-Chennai weekly train.

The Pepsi-owned Kurkure bagged the brand train tender floated by the Railways. Though companies like Airtel, Tata Tele and Sony Ericsson had also participated in the bid, Kurkure had the highest bid for all the three trains, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager of South Western Railway, Bangalore, Anwar Hussain told reporters.

The Railways is expected to earn around Rs one million from the these brand trains during the next three months.