Waiting commuters at Mumbai's one of the busiest railway stations, CSMT, will be able to set off on a virtual tour, from animals to snowfall to magic to visits around the world. CSMT will be the first station of the Central Railways Mumbai Division to have this facility, which is likely to start next week.
"Installation of a big digital screen between platforms number 11 and 12 in Mainline Concourse at CSMT is completed. Trails were also completed successfully on Tuesday. It will be totally free for passengers," said an official of CR.
For this facility, railways have tied up with Timeslider Tourism Pvt. Ltd. under a non-fare revenue scheme. The national transporter will earn Rs 50 lakh from the five-year contract.
"Augmented Reality Magic Mirror uses technology to create a virtual world on screen around the person standing in front of it. It could be characters as well as the surroundings along with a display of digitised train timetable with a dedicated scrolling screen, railway information, social awareness message," he added. Officials also said that the themes will be changed frequently to sync with the season and festivities and keep commuters engaged every time. CSMT sees an average passenger footfall of 5 to 8 lakh daily.
"This service will operate as engaging and entertaining content for the railway commuters who are waiting to board the train. The dissemination of the content will happen at regular intervals which will keep the engagement participation high. The content will be changed every month according to the season, for example, during Christmas, there would be virtual snow around the users on the screen as depicted in the picture below" said officials of CR.
"It will also have a digital train schedule that will be updated from time to time on a huge screen," he said adding that In a city like Mumbai, Augmented Reality is very common and most the kids are aware of this, but several kids belonging to remote areas still do not know about this feature. Hence, starting this type of entertainment arrangement at CSMT will provide the chance for those kids too.
