DTC plans ads on bus seats to boost revenue

The Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) is considering placing advertisements on the back of seats in its buses in order to boost its revenue, officials said.

They added that the plan also involved placing advertisements at other spots inside the bus.

Presently, advertisements have only been placed on the exterior of buses. Officials are optimistic that placing the advertisements inside the bus will boost revenue.

Officials said that the idea behind placing advertisement on seats came from trains like the Shatabdi Express, where advertisements are displayed behind every seat.

Since coming to power, CM Rekha Gupta has worked on increasing the DTC's revenue and Transport Minister Pankaj Singh has been holding several meeting with the officials to find ways to that end, an official said.

The DTC is focusing on finding alternative sources of income instead of increasing ticket fares and for this, several experiments are being carried out such as building of multi-storeyed parking facilities with shopping complexes at bus depots which will also offer parking services for the general public.

In its board meeting held in July, it was decided to generate non-traffic revenue by advertisement rights through bus body wraps on 842 electric buses operated by DTC.

Moreover, the second initiative to increase revenue is by reducing the electricity costs by installing solar panels across bus depots. Officials estimate this could slash energy expenses by 50–60 per cent, contributing significantly to cost savings.