NEW DELHI: FM radio stations are to be invited to provide train borne entertainment, railway minister Suresh Prabhu announced on Thursday.

Presenting his Rail budget for 2016-17 in the Lok Sabha, the minister said that the stations would be invited to install PA systems in trains for this purpose. At present, some prestigious trains like Rajdhani, Shatabdi and Duronto have in-built pre-recorded music being played during journeys.

(Ministry sources told radioandmusic.com that discussions would be held with the Information and Broadcasting Ministry on further action on broadcasting FM stations. These sources said it was too early to say whether this would be confined to All India Radio or would be extended to private FM stations.)

The minister also announced that the Indian Railway’s bi-lingual on-board magazine, ‘Rail Bandhu’, would be extended to all reserved classes of travellers in all Mail/ Express trains.

It is presently available only in Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duronto trains .

Furthermore, this would be brought out in all regional languages, Prabhu said.

The Minister said that the Wi-Fi facility would be extended to 400 more railway stations. At present, this facility is only available in just 100 stations across the country.