Premium trains likely to have corporate prefixes

The Railways is examining a proposal to generate revenue from corporate sponsorship of premium trains.

The idea is to prefix the name of a train with its sponsor. Trains which are likely to be considered for this kind of branding are the Rajdhanis and the Shatabdis.

If the proposal becomes a reality, sponsored trains would have similar names as the IPL or other events have; Indian Oil  IPL or something similar.  For instance, rebranded names would be something like SAIL Rajdhani or BHEL Shatabdi.  

Officials said it would be easy to brand tourist and special trains and  get sponsors for such trains. The proposal is being examined following the recommendations of the DK Mittal Committee, which was constituted by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to suggest measures to improve the financial health of the public sector undertaking.

The committee is also said to have recommended advertisement as a one of the major sources of generating income.