Railways to float entertainment tenders

[Indian Railway News]

http://www.indiantelevision.com/headlines/y2k8/dec/dec238.php

26 December 2008 5:00 pm

MUMBAI: The Indian railway ministry has asked all its zonal offices to
call for
bids through tenders for providing entertainment services on its
moving trains
nationally. The ministry, according to a report in a national daily,
says those
pitching to get the contract will have to provide hardware, networking
and
communication to be able to telecast the programmes and entertainment
on board
the trains.

The ministry additionally says that it will permit the players to use
existing
railway infrastructure such as its communication network, its stations
to
install hardware in order to be able to telecast live or delayed
programming to
railway passengers.

Players successful in getting the contract will be allowed to sell
commercial
airtime between the programmes to amortize their costs. Additionally,
they could
also offer also value-added services like telephony, Internet access,
satellite
radio and taxi and hotel booking to passengers on moving trains, the
railway
minsitry has said.