The Uttar Pradesh Metro Rail Corporation on Sunday won an ‘Award of Excellence in Public Transport’ in the ‘Metro Rail with Best Passenger Services and Satisfaction’ category for Lucknow Metro on the last day of the Urban Mobility India (UMI) Conference 2023 in New Delhi.
The UPMRC’s ‘celebration on wheels’ is an initiative to connect with passengers beyond their destinations and explore added revenue sources.
This initiative allows for people to have birthday parties in coaches and pre-wedding and movie shoots on station premises. As per the officials, the idea received a very good response from riders of Lucknow and Kanpur Metro. The metro authorities are now urging people to indulge in the idea of a ‘mobile venue’ for their special moments.
A senior official of the UPMRC told PTI, “Lucknow Metro, which now spans 23 km, has many firsts to its credit. Birthday parties being hosted in Metro Coaches is one such initiative. It has become more popular in Kanpur where the metro was opened in December 2021.”
As per the deputy general manager of UPMRC Panchanan Mishra, a “very nominal fee” is charged from the people who want to hold such events in metro coaches or on station premises. “Those taking part in a birthday celebration have to buy tokens for the duration for which they wish to be onboard the metro and pay a one-time fee of Rs 500 which we use to decorate the coach,” he said.
He added that since food consumption is not allowed inside the coaches, family members and friends are allowed to click pictures with a cake. “Cake-cutting and eating can be done at designated places on metro premises,” he further said.
Mishra also said that they can also cut the cakes at the shopping outlets on the station premises and get a 20-30 percent discount on purchases with the Metro smart cards. The one-time fee is currently being charged at a discounted rate to encourage people to be a part of “this ethos we are trying to build”, the officials said.
“The idea is to let people connect more with the metro they otherwise use only for transportation purposes. This way, a metro station or a train becomes more than a civil or electro-mechanical structure and we also get to boost our link with our passengers by covering miles and spreading smiles,” Mishra said.
The idea of celebrating birthdays in metro coaches was introduced last year and has since seen a surge in its popularity.
Pre-wedding shoots can be held both inside the coaches and on station premises. A one-time fee of Rs 10,000 will be charged. This would allow the people to have a shoot for six to eight hours in Lucknow and Kanpur Metro.
Panchanan Mishra told PTI that for feature and commercial films, the rates are defined. “It varies from Rs 75,000 to Rs 2 lakh. Some do two to three days of shoot. The film ‘Paglaith’ starring Sania Malhotra was shot in Lucknow Metro. Another film was shot about a month ago. Six to seven movies have been shot in the last one year and these include short films,” he said.