CHENNAI: Soon, the piers and pillars of the elevated corridors of metro rail will sport advertisements glowing with colourful lights. Officials said a private company had taken up the contract to install advertisement boards on the columns buttressing the viaducts on which the metro trains run.
The effort taken to promote property development, will bring in non-operational
revenue to the
Chennai Metro Rail Ltd (
CMRL).
“In about two months, we will have advertisements on the columns across the elevated section. We have given away a contract for it recently,” a CMRL official said.
Advertisements may come up in all the piers and columns on the elevated section between Koyambedu and Alandur along the 100-feet road and from Little Mount to Airport along GST Road. The company is expected to design, manufacture and install the advertisements on the columns.
Officials said the monetising effort would not only generate additional revenue for the CMRL, but will also stop people from sticking posters on its pillars and littering the space around. Metro rail has assigned a team that has been clearing the concrete pillars of posters every day. “Despite us issuing several warnings to people who stick posters regularly, they continue to to do so,” an official said.
Metro rail facility in Bangalore was perhaps the first to initiate efforts to decorate the columns of elevated corridors by growing vertical gardens using hydroponics on the pillars last year. The Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation’s (BMRCL) effort helped increase the city’s greenery.
Following the BMRCL’s initiative encouraging residents and employees of private companies to paint their piers and stations, the CMRL is also planning to give a facelift for the metro soon.
