Information Madness

Ever since Lalu Prasad Yadav became Railway Minister, Indian Railway has gone under major revamps, upgrades and much more. Famous Travel Portals selling railway tickets, post offices are selling railway tickets, Railway Stations to have ATM machines, Railway Stations to have Wi-Fi internet access and what not.

But this one just caught my eye. To fight with low cost airlines, Railway Ministry is planning to launch flat-panel touch screen television on each seat on Shatabdi Express coaches.

The Ministry has invited bids from media and entertainment companies for television equipment and other acuoustic support in 91 coaches of eight Shatabdi trains originating from New Delhi.

The ministry has named this service as "InfoTainment" which would be basically news-cum-entertainment. So the reserve price for this services is Rs. 2.31 crore for the first year but the licence will be awarded for a five-year period. (via: Rediff News)

"The railways will not invest in this project. The media companies will have to share a part of revenue with the railways," a senior Northern Railway official told Business Standard. No wonder Railways are making huge profit now.

The Ministry is also planning to install Wi-Fi systems at about 50 railway stations as a pilot project and RailTel would execute the project.

Passengers at these stations can access broadband internet facility using laptops and other Wi-Fi enabled devices, Railways Minister Lalu Prasad told the Lok Sabha in a written reply in the Lok Sabha on Thursday.

While the system is expected to be made operational in 20 stations by March 2008, it would be commissioned in the remaining 30 in 2008-09. It may be extended to other stations based on the result of the pilot project (via: Economic Times)

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