2 long distance trains to be used for publicity of destinations
Publicity Committee clears proposal, MoU shortly
Mohinder Verma
JAMMU, May 12: Governor’s administration is all set to collaborate with the Indian Railways for using long distance trains to promote State tourism in an innovative way as the State Publicity Committee has cleared a proposal in this regard. This step is expected to considerably increase the footfall of the tourists and subsequently help in improving economy of the State.
Official sources told EXCELSIOR that use of Indian Railways’ trains to promote brands and products is an innovative idea offered to the State Governments across the country. The procedures were simplified in the recent past by bringing the branding tariffs based on per-train basis.
After this simplification by the Railways Ministry, the Governor’s administration made up its mind to make use of unique advertising medium on the lines of Assam, which became the first State in the country to grab this opportunity early this year.
Accordingly, the Commiss-ioner/Secretary to Government, Tourism Department, Rigzian Sampheal was asked to minutely study the scheme of the Indian Railways and get a proposal prepared by analyzing State-wise tourists’ arrival data of last several years so that Jammu and Kashmir obtains immense benefit of this offer.
The proposal was recently placed before State Publicity Committee headed by Commissioner/Secretary to Government, Tourism Depar-tment and comprised of Director Tourism Kashmir, Director Tourism Jammu, representative of the Department of Information and Public Relations and Managing Director of Jammu and Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation and after thorough discussion the same was cleared.
With this decks have been cleared for availing the benefit of the innovative scheme of the Indian Railways, sources said while disclosing that soon after issuance of minutes of meeting within next few days the Commissioner/Secretary Tourism Department will hold formal negotiations with the concerned authorities of the Indian Railways.
“Willingness of the State to utilize trains for promotion of tourism has already been communicated to the Indian Railways after consultation with the top brass of the State administration”, sources said.
It has been decided in the Publicity Committee meeting that two long distance trains will be used for promotion of tourist destinations of all the three regions of Jammu and Kashmir, sources disclosed, adding trains which cover Gujarat and West Bengal and one running between Tamil Nadu and Delhi will be preferred by the State Government for advertisement purpose. In this way, the South, South West and Northern parts of the country will be covered under the tourism promotion campaign.
When contacted, Commissioner/Secretary to Government, Tourism Department Rigzian Sampheal confirmed that Publicity Committee, which is the only forum to take decisions about promotion of tourist destinations, has cleared the proposal. “We are hopeful of completing the formalities with the Indian Railways within another one month”, he added.
In response to a question, he said that Indian Railways will charge at least Rs 50 lakh per train for one year for vinyl wrapping of trains to tap the limitless potential of using exteriors as a medium of advertisement.
“Spending Rs one crore annually for such a wide-spread publicity is not a big deal”, he said in response to another question, adding “the campaign through trains will provide a quantum boost to the tourism sector of Jammu and Kashmir because of its high visibility”.
He further disclosed that soon after signing of Memorandum of Understanding with the Indian Railways under the scheme the Tourism Department will float tenders inviting bids for vinyl wrapping of exteriors of the selected trains depicting all the major tourist destinations of Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh.
“We will ensure parity with all the regions of the State during this promotion campaign”, he said while replying to another query, adding “the promotion of tourist destinations through trains doesn’t mean that we will stop other activities like holding road shows in different parts of the country and such activities will go on uninterrupted”.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
