Getting revenue through non-fare box operations in Chennai - CMRL
Posted on: 17/Dec/2022 9:23:29 AM
After the Covid-19 lockdown, CMRL or Chennai Metro Rail Limited has made a decent revenue through fare box operation or ticketing system. For the financial year 2021-22, CMRL has also generated 37% revenue through non fare box operations such as retail shops, food kiosks and beverage kiosks, ATM,office space, FMCG among the other services present both inside and outside the premises of the metro stations.
It must be taken into account that currently 80 of these operations are at 8 metro stations in Chennai such as Central, Alandur, Thirumangalam, Koyambedu, Mannadi, Anna Nagar East and Tower.
It was brought out by an oficial that by floating tenders regularly licences have been issued too many operations for more than 5 years. This has led to an income of 37percent. He added that most of the shops, retails and ATMS are functioning even now and few have surrendered their licences after the Covid-19 lockdown due to fund issues. Kiosks and retail shops present inside and outside the premises of the metro stations have been utilised well by many commuters over the years.
At the selected elevated and underground metro stations on the corridors 1 and 2 of phase-1 and its extension on a regular basis, the business development wing of the CMRL has been floating tenders frequently. This was mainly to license the bare shell shops, office space mini kiosks,and kiosk ancillary buildings etc in these metro stations.
For setting up of retail outlets, it is necessary to have a certificate from Food Safety and Standards Authority of India or FSSAI and Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points or HACCP etc for the business related outlets and pharmacy based operations.
According to an officer from CMRL, about 30%outlets in the identified space have been licensed. He added that the balanced space in the underground metro stations does not have facilities like water, drainage and exhaust etc. Now, CMRL has been working on the feasibility of providing basic utility provision space for the balance space. To augment non-fare box operations, CMRL has appointed Knight Frank as a project management unit. There would be better facilities in the phase-2 and this was assured by the official from CMRL.
