RailEnquiry

Mysore - In a bid to attract more number of tourists to Dasara celebrations, the Dasara Publicity and Sponsorship Sub-Committee has undertaken a slew of publicity and advertising initiatives across the country at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh for advertisements in media and other forms of advertisements.While Rs. 35 lakh is being spent for advertisements in print media, Rs. 10 lakh is being spent on advertisements on TV and the remaining on advertisements in Railway Stations, Bus Stands and other public places.Disclosing this to media persons, Publicity Sub-Committee President C.K. Mahendra said that advertisements in the form of flash presentations are already being carried out near the ticket counters at 787 Railway Stations across the country and television clippings are also being shown at major Railway Stations like the ones in Bangalore, Chennai and Mumbai.

Keeping in mind the foreign segment, hoardings with details of Dasara events have also been put up in Bangalore International and Mysore Airports, he said and added that in all, 160 hoardings have been put up across the State and efforts are on to put up 60 more such hoardings.

There are 70 hoardings in Mysore district and 10 hoardings on display at Mysore-Bangalore highway while 80 hoardings are on display at other districts of the State, Mahendra said and added that in order to familiarise tourists with Mysore city, one lakh maps of the city and two lakh Dasara brochures will be printed and distributed and the expenses for the same will be borne by sponsors.

A mobile application has also been created in order to provide information on Dasara to public and the same can be downloaded from Google Play Store.

Lack of sponsorship

District Minister V. Sreenivasa Prasad’s reported refusal to private sponsors during Dasara has resulted in many sponsors refraining from extending their support to the festivities.

Contrary to last year’s sponsorship of Rs. 40 lakh by Tata Docomo, this year, a sponsorship of only Rs. 20 lakh has been received with TVS sponsoring Rs. 11 lakh, KPTCL Rs. 5 lakh and the remaining from other companies, said Sub-Committee Working President P. Mahesh Kumar. Sub-Committee Vice-President Lokesh Rao, Deputy Special Officer S. Palaiah, Secretary Vikram and others were present.