Free Wi-Fi at 715 railway stations

Free Wi-Fi services at 715 railway stations have been used by 1.3 million unique users till October 2018

vishwas

Vishwas Dass | December 21, 2018 | Delhi


#Google   #Piyush Goyal   #railway station   #Indian Railways   #internet   #WiFi   #RailTel  


The Indian Railways’ ambitious plan of providing free Wi-Fi services has started showing results, as 715 out of 5,734 proposed stations have got the facility as on December 14.

Minister of railways Piyush Goyal has been laying emphasis on speedy completion of the programme for the benefit of lakhs of commuters. More than 23 million passengers travel everyday in over 10,000 trains of the railways.

Internet search giant Google is supporting the programme by collaborating with Indian Railways to enable passengers avail free Wi-Fi services at the station premises. The programme is being jointly executed by the railway’s enterprise RailTel and Google. 
 
The programme had earlier snowballed into a controversy after reports of people watching porn at railway stations through free Wi-Fi surfaced in the media. Some modifications have been done now by the service provider to restrict pornographic content on the wireless internet service.
 
RailTel has entered into a pact with Mahataa Information India Private Limited (MIIPL), an Indian subsidiary of Google Inc., for providing free Wi-Fi at 438 A1 and A category stations. The project cost is being shared by RCIL and MIIPL. 
 
RailTel has also joined hands with Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) of the department of telecommunications, ministry of communications, for providing Wi-Fi at 200 rural railway stations. For this, Rs 27.77 crore has been provided by the ministry of communications under USOF.
 
Minister of state of railways, Rajen Gohain in a reply to a question in Lok Sabha said free Wi-Fi services at 715 railway stations have been used by 1.3 million unique users till October 2018. 

List of stations (statewise) where Wi-Fi internet facility is planned:-
 
S.No. Name of State No. of Stations
1. Andhra Pradesh 449
2. Arunachal Pradesh 02
3. Assam 225
4. Bihar 366
5. Chhattisgarh 109
6. Delhi 25
7. Goa 06
8. Gujarat 352
9. Haryana 117
10. Himachal Pradesh 42
11. Jammu & Kashmir 29
12. Jharkhand 191
13. Karnataka 159
14. Kerala 110
15. Madhya Pradesh 363
16. Maharashtra 489
17. Manipur 02
18. Meghalaya 02
19. Mizoram 01
20. Nagaland 02
21. Odisha 207
22. Puducherry 03
23. Punjab 211
24. Rajasthan 453
25. Tamilnadu 428
26. Telangana 10
27. Tripura 12
28. Uttar Pradesh 785
29. Uttarakhand 19
30. West Bengal 565
                                     Total 5734
 
According to data, Uttar Pradesh has got the maximum number of 785 stations where this service will be provided followed by 565 of West Bengal and 489 of Maharashtra. 
 
The railways’ initiative hogged much limelight after a porter Sreenath K cracked Kerala Public Service Commission exam by using free internet service at Kerala's Ernakulam station in May this year.

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