CHENNAI: A safety app by the Railway Protection Force (RPF) for women passengers on the suburban network is failing to take off due to no policy on advertising rights, making potential sponsors shy away. Following the Swathi murder case, last year, the divisional RPF officers had pondered on a safety app for women passengers on the suburban train network. The app was designed to function with Global Positioning System (GPS) such that SOS alerts would be sent out to RPF personnel in Chennai division.
Ironically, the Railways, which is promoting branding and advertising through trains and large screens at stations, is not having a policy for advertising through sponsors. “The app has been developed at a cost of '10 la-khs. Only geofencing functionality and enabling of GPS is remaining. We need to set up a control room for monitoring purposes. Due to the lack of sponsors, it has been stalled,” said a senior RPF official. “Those who are ready to sponsor want their brands to be advertised, but that is currently against the policy,” said the official.
Officials added that the old advertising rights were changed. “Even the trolleys and barricades sponsored by third parties can no longer carry their logos or images,” said an official. RPF officers added that the advertisements of Railway Helpline number ‘182’ carrying logos of other parties have been taken down. “We are caught between the Ministry and the sponsors due to a lack of policy. Advertising is a potential revenue creating area but it is not being encouraged in such scenarios. The concept and the software are ready but we are unable to launch,” added the RPF official.
