www.kalimpong.info

AFNews (India)

Kalimpong: Indian car giant Maruti Udyog Ltd. is reportedly bidding to offer blanket corporate sponsorship to the township of Kalimpong in West Bengal. MUL is reported to be in an advanced stage of negotiations with the Kalimpong Municipality and the Darjeeling District Administration to finalize the deal. Although the details of the sponsorship are unclear at the moment, an inside source from the DM’s office, speaking on conditions of anonymity, has said that this will herald the launch of a massive PR campaign planned by the car manufacturer to regain its foothold in the Indian small car market. This campaign is a pilot project wherein MUL will be adopting the town to showcase the popularity and versatility of MUL’s largest selling product, the Omni, or more popularly the Maruti Van.

The town of Kalimpong (in the district of Darjeeling and about 3 hours from Darjeeling) is reported to have an unusually large population of Maruti vans and this has led to this unsolicited but potentially welcome attention from the PR division of MUL. An international market research firm was reportedly responsible for surveying the town and interviewing the vehicle owners. Their findings indicated that although a majority of the vehicles were privately owned and registered, most of the owners made the purchase with the intention of hiring out the vehicles as taxi-cabs, this being a lucrative business in the town. In particular the vans are preferred due to its spaciousness (high interior volume index) which can easily accommodate up to 8 adult passengers, or up to 12 school children. In addition, the external dimensions with its extended wheelbase (length) but smaller track (width), higher ground clearance and a minimal turning radius (4 metres) all contribute to making this vehicle ideal for the narrow and hilly road conditions in Kalimpong. These conditions have resulted in an explosion in the population of Maruti vans in the town, so much so that even the parking management and traffic planning is being done by the authorities keeping the dimensions of these vehicles in mind. On any regular day in Kalimpong it is a common sight to see the Main Road lined with an almost endless row of Maruti vans, parked perpendicular to the flow of traffic.

The visuals of such a proliferation of the Maruti Van seems to have caught the eye of the publicists at MUL. The PR campaign would be geared towards showing the Maruti Van as ‘An Indian Car’ by highlighting its popularity in the smaller towns and cities representative of the larger non-urban population of the country. Inside sources have indicated that this campaign was slated to begin before the official unveiling of the Tata Nano, but due to the unstable political situation in the Kalimpong and Darjeeling area the campaign got off to a slow start. However sources now report that the deal being struck is favourable to both MUL and the hill town. The details of the agreement are unreleased but unverified reports indicate that MUL would get exclusive filming rights, the commercial rights to all images of the town road and traffic networks, and exclusive rights to showcase the town as a Maruti Van friendly town. In return the automobile giant would financially contribute towards the building and upkeep of roads and other traffic or road related elements such as barriers, pavement markings and drainage systems, as well as train and maintain traffic wardens in select busy intersections. MUL would also start an intensive road and traffic safety awareness campaign aimed at school children and taxi drivers.

The citizens of the hill town have displayed different reactions to this campaign. The general consensus among the people who have heard of the potential adoption is that the sponsorship by MUL would largely be a positive step for the town. It would increase general awareness of the town in the Indian media which would greatly benefit its tourism, floriculture and education establishments, the three major industries which drive the town’s economy. Another benefit would be the upkeep of the road network which gets battered by heavy usage and a three-month long monsoon season, and which the local authorities cannot possibly keep up in terms of repair and maintenance.

However there are some concerned citizens who worry about the ‘selling out’ or commercialization of the town. “Our town is not a TV show or a cricket game that can be bought out by large corporations for the sake of their bottom-line. It is a living breathing town and we are not for sale. In fact look at the traffic problem here. Instead of bringing about awareness to reduce congestion and pollution we will be actively encouraging our citizens to buy more and more cars. This town cannot support all that vehicle population! “, says a citizen who, for fear of backlash, wishes only to be identified as “Bairey Saila”.

Such voices though are rare, and it seems that the town will whole-heartedly welcome this unexpected windfall of media attention and development funds.

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Edit:
Below is a photograph that shows the proliferation of Vans in Kalimpong.
-Admin