In a few days, commuters will be able to watch videos or films for free as they travel on Chennai Metro Rail across the city. ‘Sugarbox’, an in-train entertainment system that will allow commuters to use a closed loop WiFi facility and view or download content for free, is likely to be inaugurated by the end of this week, sources said.
“Chennai Metro Rail has requested the State government authorities for a date for inauguration this week. It should be finalised and launched in a few days,” a source said.
According to officials of Chennai Metro Rail Limited (CMRL) said, commuters will have to just download the Sugarbox app and register; after that, they can watch content for free. “From TV series to films, in languages including English, Tamil and Hindi, commuters can watch during travel and also download the content and later view it offline as well. It may take only about 10 minutes to download a film, that’s the kind of speed this app will provide for commuters. We want to keep commuters engaged while travelling and give them more reasons to use public transport,” an official said.
CMRL has already begun putting up advertisements inside the trains about this facility.
Chennai Metro Rail, on an average has about 1.15 lakh people travelling every day through its 45 km network, and a major portion of its travellers take this system to go to one of the four transport hubs: Chennai airport, Chennai Central railway station, Chennai Egmore railway station or CMBT. “It may take about 35-40 minutes to travel from Washermanpet to Chennai airport. During this time, they can watch a movie for a while,” the official said.
