Row over Metro ‘branding’

Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) and Reliance Infrastructure-led Mumbai Metro One Private Limited (MMOPL) are once again at loggerheads over the difference between ‘branding’ and ‘renaming’ Metro stations.

On Tuesday, a real estate portal, Magicbricks, said it has acquired branding rights for the Western Express Highway (WEH) Metro station, a move that would be followed by the word ‘Magicbricks’ being used before the word ‘WEH’ as a prefix.

While MMRDA terms this to be a change in the name of the Metro station, MMOPL claimed that this does not amount to a change of name and was a mere branding exercise, where the brand name would only be associated with the Metro station as a temporary prefix.

In a letter sent to MMOPL on July 29, 2016, the MMRDA said, “It is seen that the Metro station will be renamed, which requires the state government’s permission. Also, a commercial angle is being added and this requires a positive vote from MMRDA.”

To this, MMOPL, in a letter sent on July 29, replied, “There is no additional commercial angle and it is a part of the advertising rights signed with the company earlier. Also, it cannot be termed as a change of name, and instead is an addition of the brand name as a prefix or suffix.”

MMOPL has maintained that the branding of stations is not new, and a widely practised phenomena. Apart from the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, other Metros in the country, too, follow the same revenue generation model, it said.