India’s first regional rail RAPIDX will soon begin its regular service on the Priority Section of the Delhi-Ghaziabad-Meerut RRTS corridor. The 17 km long stretch will have five stations on the route. These stations are – Sahibabad, Ghaziabad, Guldhar, Duhai, and Duhai Depot.
Before the commencement of the commercial services, the National Capital Region Transport Corporation (NCRTC) is exploring the options of non-fare box revenue for financial sustainability. The move aims to overcome the challenges associated with reliance solely on passenger fares.
What is Non-Fare Box revenue?
The NCRTC is considering the Non-Fare Box option to raise additional revenue apart from selling passenger tickets. For this, the NCRTC has decided to include panel advertising, experiential advertising, retail shops, semi-naming rights, real estate development, consultancy, and other similar avenues.
How to raise Non-Fare Box revenue?
- The first opportunity that NCRTC proposes to partner with, is the stations semi- naming rights. By associating its name with the station, the Brand will instantly create a unique recall.
- In addition to this, the country’s first regional rail system will also select its partners for Advertising – Outdoor, Indoor and Train Wrapping, Mobile Towers and Optical Fibre leasing and for providing last-mile connectivity.
- The NCRTC has also planned to include Virtual Stores. This will allow a user to virtually select the objects. The users can shop at their origin and goods can be delivered to them at the destination station. This could be faster than other modes of e-commerce. The Virtual Store initiative is very popular in South Korea.
- The NCRTC will be offering brands exclusive rights to sell products of a certain category at their stations. For this, it will tie-up with the food or grocer delivery to offer their products at the stations. This initiative is quite similar to the concept of “Pouring Rights” at the airports where a single brand is given the right for offering beverages.