Mumbai: Soon, locals will give weather updates

Mumbai: You can keep yourself updated on city matters as you travel in the locals. The railway plans to experiment using the LED (light-emitting diode) scrollers inside the new coaches for multiple use, such as flashing weather updates and public service messages, and also putting them to commercial use.

At present, these scrollers indicate the approaching stations and other messages. If the trials undertaken by WR are successful, commuters will be able to see additional use of the scrollers.

The railways have various options to put them to public benefit by using them to inform commuters about traffic diversions and weather, and flash public service messages and advertisements.

"These scrollers can be put to use for much more than one can think of, and there are nearly 70 lakh eyeballs that would see them. It would be a great hit if they can also be put to commercial use," a senior divisional railway official said.

He added that the WR had taken trial runs with features such as weather updates and temperature readings. The railway had already added a few messages such as the one that promotes the railway smart card and warns against trespassing.

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"If we intend to put them to commercial use and other such purposes, the technical functioning of these scrollers has to be of high quality in all seasons and we are working on it," he added.

The LED scrollers are a new addition to public transport in Mumbai and even the new BEST buses, funded by the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission, have such scrollers.

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"Once we work on a policy, we can always alert commuters on public transport modes through messages and updates," another official said.

The new violet suburban trains have been bought under the Rs4,500-crore phase-I of the Mumbai Urban Transport Project and introduced since 2007.