NEW DELHI: From vinyl wrapping and branding of trains to leveraging vast railway property, cash-strapped Indian Railways is moving full steam ahead to generate more nonfare revenues , in line with minister Suresh Prabhu’s efforts.The target is to increase non-fare revenues (NFR) for railways to Rs 1,500 crore by the end of this fiscal from current Rs 300 crore per year. The newly constituted NFR directorate in the railway ministry is working closely with private consultants like KPMG and EY to monetise railway assets.The most ambitious among all NFR projects is the proposed Rail Display Network (RDN) that is expected to generate Rs 3,500 crore annually by end of the sixth year of its launch. RDN is proposed to be a centrally managed system that entails putting up an integrated network of over 200,000 multipurpose digital screens inside 2,175 railway stations across the country.“The display units will show rail-related information on half the screen and ads on the other half. The idea is to use eye-ball capture of the specific information seeker or waiting passenger to earn revenue from 50 per cent surface area,” said Ranjan Thakur, executive director for NFR.“It will not only increase passenger satisfaction with timely information, it will be a significant source of revenue for railways. It will take OOH (Out-of-Home) advertising to a new level,” he said. Thakur told ET that things were on the fast track. KPMG, for example, gave its report on RDN in June, stating that railways can earn up toRs 1,000 crore after the first year itself. Railways shortlisted interested partners and on August 3, awarded letters of invitation to four media groups to conduct proof of concept at selected stations — Gwalior, Jaipur, Old Delhi and Gorakhpur.The chosen groups — MIC Electronics, Zee Media Corporation, Prabhatam Advertising Ltd and Direct News Pvt Ltd — have been given the deadline of October-end to have the project up and running. Things are moving on other fronts too. For vinyl wrapping of trains, an eauction platform has been finalised for Delhi-Mumbai Rajdhani to begin with. Other Mumbai-based trains would be next, followed by Chennai and Bengaluru-bound trains.The aim is to cover all trains eventually. For branding of trains, railways plans to give all monetising rights on a train, including ‘naming rights’, to one proponent. “This could be a highly valued asset for the investor where he could brand and monetise the train passengers in a comprehensive manner.For example, ‘Amul Ahmedabad Rajdhani’. Further, the same proponent would provide different on-board services like entertainment, Wi-Fi and merchandising to the train passengers,” a note prepared by railway ministry has stated. Other measures to generate NFR include launching rail radio through private participation, website and app monetisation, and product displays and launches at stations.