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Sabu and Sandeep run into each other at Chennai Central station of the Indian Railways. The conversation:

Sabu: Hey, nice to meet you Sandeep. Which train? Colgate or Pepsi?

Sandeep: No, Sabu, did not get tickets for Colgate. Trip was not planned, so got it for Rexona. Which is your train? Lux or Nike?

Sabu: Nike, need to reach early morning. Now Nike is superfast, you know?

Sandeep: Great, okay then, it’s time for my Rexona, see you. Have a nice trip.

Sabu: Same to you.

So, you think these two characters have gone nuts? Sorry, they are as normal and sane as you. They’re just boarding trains.

[Last year], India’s first branded train was flagged off from Bangalore, in south India. The Kurkure Bangalore-Hubli Summer Special and Kurkure Bangalore-Chennai weekly train.

Kurkure? It is the first branded train of Indian Railways, named after Kurkure, a heavily advertised snackfood brand owned and marketed across India by the Indian subsidiary of a US-based multinational corporation, PepsiCo. The interesting part of the deal is that the brand name features along with the train’s name in all announcements, as well as on reservation tickets, reservation charts, destination boards etcetera.

This signifies the entry of corporates, and since they have an image to live up to, they will also take care to ensure that the coaches and toilets on these special trains are cleaner than what Indian train travellers are typically accustomed to. Or so we hear (Ha... ready for a train journey?).

For this prvilege, of course, the brand would also have to pay an advertising fee to the Railways. There are throw-ins for passengers as well. Passengers on board the Nagercoil-bound train received free sachets of Kurkure as an inaugural gesture.

Pepsi-owned Kurkure bagged the first brand train tender floated by the Railways. Though companies like Airtel, Tata Tele and Sony Ericsson had also participated in the bid, Kurkure’s bid was the highest. In all, Indian Railways is expected to earn around Rs 1 million from its brand trains. No wonder Indian Railways has started making huge profits.

So, in the coming days, we would be travelling on timely Titan or grippy MRF or even iron-rich Kellogg’s—who knows?

Kind attention, please!

Train number 5386, Chennai-to-Mumbai Nike express will start from Platform number eight.

Just get in!

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