Delhi Metro to allow partial renaming of all upcoming stations

Don’t be surprised to find names of companies or products being added to Delhi Metro stations coming up under Phase-III.

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) — tweaking an existing policy that allowed only operational metro stations to be put up for branding — has decided to begin semi-renaming for most of its upcoming stations.

The DMRC recently gave co-branding rights for the existing Dwarka Sector 10, ITO and Vishwavidyalaya stations to Punjab National Bank (PNB), JK Tyre and Honda 2 Wheelers India respectively. After this, tenders have been floated to semi-rename Okhla Bird Sanctuary and Sukhdev Vihar stations on the Magenta Line (Janakpuri West to Botanical Garden), which is slated to open by March, 2017.

City Park station coming up on the extension of Green Line (Inderlok – Mundka) and Noida Sector 62 station on the Blue Line extension are also up for grabs.

Renaming a station is different from semi-renaming it. Renaming, as was the case of Race Course station that was changed to Lok Kalyan Marg, is expensive because the DMRC has to change the name from everywhere – signages, server system for tokens and cards, maps, pamphlets and inside the trains and so on. It costs the Delhi metro anywhere between Rs 5-6 crore to change the name of a station.

For co-branding or semi-renaming, on the other hand, the DMRC does not have to shell out any money and just provides space.

“It is not just these four upcoming stations. We are open to requests for co-branding for other stations of Phase III as well,” a Metro official said.

The move comes after the mass transporter, faced opposition from locals living around a station.

For example, the name Honda 2 Wheelers Vishwavidyalaya station did not go down well with Delhi University students and many had taken to Twitter express their disappointment.

“This is our property development model and we have to generate revenue through advertisements. Sooner or later, stations in Phase-III also would have to go through the same process. The new move will help generate more revenue and help people know a station by a particular name from the start,” explained a official.

Although the corporation refused to divulge the revenue the co-branding process will generate, sources said the amount will be around Rs 2 crore per station per annum.

The DMRC has till date re-named 10 stations. “The names of these stations don’t change completely. The agencies just add prefix or suffix to the original name. On our maps and official papers, the original name remains,” another official explained.