Mumbai Metro-3 ‘sells’ naming rights for 5 stations for Rs 216 crore

Mumbai : In an innovative move, the Mumbai Metro Rail Corporation Ltd. (MMRCL) has awarded naming rights for five stations on the Colaba-BKC-SEEPZ Metro-3 line for a whopping Rs 216 crore, a top official said here on Wednesday.

The non-fare revenue benefit shall be available for a period of five years from the commissioning of the line, expected by 2023-end, cumulatively earning Rs 216 crore with 5 per cent annual escalation, or over Rs 40 crore per annum, said MMRCL Managing Director Ashwini Bhide.

The five stations for which the naming rights have been given are: Bandra Kurla Complex, Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Terminus to Kotak Mahindra Bank, Siddhivinayak Metro Station to ICICI Lombard, besides Churchgate and Hutatma Chowk Metro stations to LIC.

These companies will be entitled to branding space inside the station, a mention in train announcements and station maps, plus pre-fixing their brand names to the station name awarded to them.

“This is the first step towards generating non-fare box revenue that will ease funding and keep the fares reasonable for the commuters,” said Bhide.

She added that the average value realised of Rs 8 crore ($1.1 million) per station annually is the highest in India and among the highest in the world, beating metros in Dubai, Madrid, Jakarta, and Kuala Lumpur which averaged upto $1 million per station annually.

With the consortium of Auctus Advisors-StudioPOD handling the bidding process, the MMRCL plans to invite bids for the naming rights of the remaining stations on the Metro 3 soon.

The trial runs for the city’s first fully underground Mumbai Metro-3 were started on August 30 even as the project got bogged down due to a row over the carshed, leading to cost escalation and delays.

The work on the Rs 37,000 crore, 33.50 kms Metro 3 corridor started in 2016 and the first phase is likely to be completed by end-2023, linking Colaba in south Mumbai to SEEPZ in north-west, via BKC, with 26 underground stations and one at ground level.

Around 99 percent of the tunnel digging work is completed and the overall project execution stands at around 70 percent.