In order to boost the revenue, the Indian Railways is planning to install 2 lakh screens at stations across the country. All the major railway stations will soon have huge screens which will display the real-time passenger information. It will also help in monetising the opportunity through digital advertising.
The Ministry of Railways is targeting revenue to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore in the next 10 years from this mega advertising platform.
The Rail Display Network (RDN) will raise funds from non-ticketing sources and strengthen the interface with passengers. These screens will be installed at the most visible locations.
The RDN will be installed at around 400 major stations which fall under A category. For this, the tender will be awarded by May. However, many large and small digital screens are already functioning at Old Delhi, Gorakhpur, Gwalior and Varanasi as railways had earlier awarded the proof of concept (PoC) contract for RDN at these stations. The screens will be ‘cloud-controlled’, which will allow effective monitoring of the content.
Many top guns of the IT sector such as Google, Microsoft and Reliance are keen to take part in the project.
According to an official, “this is expected to be the biggest advertising platform outside television.”
Railtel, a state-run undertaking under the railways, will provide the optical fibre cable network as well as its expertise for other technical requirements to roll out the network.
