The Central Railway (CR) plans to give their daily patrons a New Year's gift. Local commuters on CR trains will able to stream high-quality content – including movies, television shows and music – free of charge on their mobile devices with the onset of the much-awaited Content on Demand service in mid-January. The service will provide preloaded, multilingual content which will include movies, news and music videos. The Railway administration has decided to provide the service with an aim to generate more non-fare revenue. Although the service will be free for commuters, the CR will charge service providers to recover the cost through advertisements. “CoD will be available from the middle of January and it will not only improve passenger experience, but also increase non-fare revenue through multiple monetisation models,” said a senior CR officer, adding that under this project, local commuters of CR will be able to enjoy uninterrupted, free or subscription-based entertainment services during their train journey, despite the unstable mobile network in moving trains. “The content will be periodically refreshed,” said another official.
A senior official said all CR local trains will be covered gradually under this project. Work of fitting necessary equipment on two local rakes is already completed, with eight more rakes currently being fitted with the equipment. The process is likely to complete by January 10. “Once fitment of necessary equipment is completed on these 10 rakes (local trains), we will start the service,” said a CR officer who is monitoring the project, adding that all 165 local trains (rakes) will be covered gradually. Confirming the development, CR's Chief Public Relations Officer Shivaji Sutar said, “it is being done on experimental basis. We will observe the response of commuters first before expanding the services.”
The commuters need to download an application to avail this facility. After the app has been installed on a mobile device there is no need of internet data to use the services. The app will be made by the service provider.
