Tomorrow is the last day for submitting a tender document to provide for a rather interesting service on the Northern Railways division of the Indian Railways: an entertainment and communications system for 8 Shatabdi trains, covering 41 hour of travel time per day, and potentially catering to 15642 passengers across executive and chair cars, in 88 railway coaches. This is essentially for providing the device and content fixed into seats for passengers to use. Business Standard reports that both Dish TV and Reliance DTH are keen on applying and that Dish TV has even completed a pilot project on the Kalka Shatabdi. What that report doesn't mention from the tender, is that the Railways also wants the provisioning of commerce services on the train - especially the provisioning of booking of tickets and hotels. They're looking to provide travellers with a "package of entertainment, information, networking and communication", and this includes the Internet. You may download the tender here (you'll have to register as a vendor first; is free and easy). A few notes we took from the tender document, along with our comments: 1. Why Free? The Railways is looking to provide travellers with a "package of entertainment, information, networking and communication", and this includes the Internet. However, it insists that the "basic entertainment service will be free of cost, and passengers will only have to pay for add-on services." Why can't licensees provide premium pay-per-view content? Or is that being viewed as an add-on service? 2. Screens: The tender…
