SER, which operates almost 40 per cent of Indian Railway's freight trains, has aggressive plans to commercialise its operations to the hilt. The freight trains that traverse the length and breadth of the country are now slated to be commercially exploited by the railway authorities.

To make its plan a success, the railway board is calling advertisers to come forward with open suggestions.

The railway authorities have decided to open the "closed circuit" trains to advertisers. Elaborating on this, top railway officials said "these are the trains that ply on a fixed route and shuttle to and fro on it."Some of the routes that have been identified so far are from Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh to Wanakgari in Gujarat, Visakhapatnam to Vijaywada in Andhra Pradesh and Bilaspur in Madhya Pradesh to Shalimar in West Bengal.

SER will offer around 60,000 wagons under the project. SER says that the wagons will carry the advertisement for four to five years, to synchronise with the periodic overhauls that take place after this time. Officials said "The goods train has to come back to a Periodic Over Haul (POH) every four-five years at its base depot.'' Two such POH base depots are located in Raipur and Kharagpur in West Bengal.

SER's commercial and mechanical departments are jointly looking after the entire project. Two sample wagons have so far been put up at the Shalimar railway station to give prospective advertisers an idea of what the railways wants.

When asked what sort of advertisements they would entertain, the officials said "Any, as long as they are not socially offensive ones or those which do not contain any jingoistic slogans."Replying to questions on the colour of paint that is to be used, the officials said there are no hard and fast rules to be followed for that. Initially, SER will lease only complete rakes of 58 wagons each as the minimum unit to the advertisers.

Each wagon, roughly 15 metres long and four to five metres tall, has a "substantial" surface area reserved for advertisers. "It is a very good medium as it promises high visibility. It is a new opportunity for us and we would surely try to convince our clients to place their advertisements in this medium. It is ideally suited for consumer goods ads," feels Uttam Singhania, PR chief, Pressman Advertising.