With intent to provide passengers a fun-filled journey, the South Central Railway (SCR) has introduced a new initiative 'Magic Box'. This will allow passengers to watch movies, TV series, cartoons etc. in English, Hindi and other regional languages, while travelling on the Kacheguda-KSR Bengaluru Express (Train. No. 12785).
According to SCR, the air-conditioned coaches on the train have been equipped with these 'Magic Boxes' that will provide WiFi, enabling seamless online streaming. SCR said that the passengers can access 5,000 hours of entertainment. “The objective of Magic Box is to provide entertainment to passengers during the journey time,” said SCR in a media release.
The service is presently provided on a trial basis. The railways has already experimented this initiative on the New Delhi Shatabdi Express, Mumbai Rajdhani Express and Lucknow Express trains.
Magic Box is supplied by a Delhi based technology firm, SR Moving Talkies Private Limited.
Explaining how the facility can be availed, officials said that the Magic Box device provides free WiFi. "One needs to turns on the WiFi on their device, choose 'Magic Box', and search magicbox.com on their browser. A one-time registration would be required, following which the passenger can enjoy the services," said an official. SCR officials said that six ‘Magic Box’ devices have been fitted in the five air-conditioned coaches of the train.
Besides entertainment, passengers can also read and view content pertaining to railways and other government policies.
Last year in February, the Chennai-Mysuru Shatabdi express was revamped and equipped with the ‘Magic Box’ along with several other changes as part of Project Swarna, the Ministry of Railways’ initiative to improve passenger experience on Rajdhani and Shatabdi trains across the country.
Under Project Swarna, the Chennai-Mysuru Shatabdi was also revamped with more leg-room, better toilets, luggage rack and micro-burst fragrance installed in the toilet to get rid of the foul order. The coaches were also equipped with LED coach indicators for passengers who wish to read books.