Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/mumbai-news/central-railway-passengers-to-get-infotainment-onboard-local-trains-101644500793617.html
Publisher: The Hindustan Times
MUMBAI: In order to provide entertainment to the passengers travelling by the local trains, Central Railway (CR) will introduce a ‘content on demand’ infotainment system in its suburban railway trains. The system was launched on Friday by Central Railway general manager Anil Kumar Lahoti and is aimed to provide passengers with digital connectivity inside the local trains.
Officials said the passengers will be able to browse pre-loaded content including movies, soap operas, audio-visual content while the local train is in motion. Though the initiative is a part of measures to collect non fare revenue, the system will be free of cost for the passengers. Passengers would not require to connect to WiFi or a mobile network to view the contents after the download. 10 local trains have been equipped by the system that would provide passengers with the content.
“The content on demand will be introduced in selected local trains on Friday,” said a senior Central Railway official. Similarly, the Western Railway (WR) has also introduced infotainment devices inside local train compartments of its local trains. The infotainment devices on the Western Railway are LCD screens that have been placed inside the local train compartments and will display commercial advertisements along with general and railway related information on the screens.
Presently, luxury trains operating on the Indian railways have pre-loaded infotainment device contents provided on LCD devices. Hotspot devices that enable passengers to view movies, soap operas, audio and video songs are also being introduced in a move to increase the Indian railways’ non- fare revenue. Railway board; the apex body of all zonal railways, has issued directives to the 18 zones of Indian railways to increase its revenue.
