India's first branded train 'Kurkure Express' chugs off

Bangalore, Apr 12 (UNI) Chugging on with its innovative ideas to bolster its revenues, the Indian Railways today launched a branded train 'Kurkure Express' from the city station here today.

The special tri-weekly train running between Bangalore and Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu would be named after the popular snack brand 'Kurkure', with the train sporting colourful posters and banners.

With the flagging off of the first branded train, Railway Minister Lalu Prasad's dream of having a branded train came to fruition.

Speaking to newspersons after flagging off the train, South Western Railway Bangalore Divisional Railway Manager Mahesh Mangal said SWR had signed up two more special trains -- Mangalore-Hubli tri-weekly and Yeswantpur-Chennai weekly -- with the snack maker.

While the first would make its maiden journey as a branded train on Saturday, the services of the latter would begin tomorrow.

The other feature of the branded trains was the presence of three cleaners, belonging to the sponsors, who would keep the train clean throughout the journey.

There was a near stampede on the busy platform one in the city station when company representatives began distributing free pouches of different flavours of Kurkure.

Kurkure brand won the sponsorship, keeping at bay three other well known contenders Sony Ericsson, Airtel and Tata Indicom.

UNI