Wi-Fi service launched at New Delhi railway station

The railways ministry has launched Wi-Fi service at New Delhi Railway Station. Prabhakar Prabhu, union minister of Railways, has inaugurated the Wi-Fi Broadband Services.

The project is being executed by RailTel, a Public Sector Undertaking of the ministry of Railways.

Minister of Railways Suresh Prabhakar Prabhu said that expectations of railway users are quite basic in nature like cleanliness in stations and trains, quality in catering and security and safety. It is the responsibility and the duty of the railway administration to meet their expectations. The Indian Railways have been a number of measures to improve the facilities of the railway users. The world is seeing the changes in various fields and the Railways should also keep pace with the latest technology.

The Wi-Fi facility is to be provided at 75 A1 category stations within a period of 12 months. On a trial basis, the facility is to be launched at Agra, Ahmedabad and Varanasi by the end of December 2014 and at Howrah, Chhatrapati Shivaji Terminus, Mumbai and Secunderabad by January 2015.

The Ministry of Communications & Information Technology has been approached for financial support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for providing Wi-Fi facility at wayside stations, particularly in the remote areas.

The RailWire-powered Wi-Fi will give maximum speed of 1 mbps. Wi-Fi facility shall be available to the users free of cost initially for a period of 30 minutes by registering on the Wi-Fi network through their mobile. For usage beyond 30 minutes, the users may purchase scratch cards, which will be made available at the 24X7 Wi-Fi Help Desks in the concourse on Paharganj and Ajmeri gate side of station adjoining platform Nos. 1 and 16, respectively.

The total cost of the project is Rs 50 lakh and an amount of Rs 16 lakh will be spent annually to run the facility.