Maligaon, July 30 (MExN): As a giant leap towards Digital India, Indian Railways is providing fast & free Wi-Fi to passengers at Railway stations.
As per a press release from Pranav Jyoti Sharma, Chief Public Relations Officer, rail wire Wi-Fi at Railways stations was gaining popularity and is a preferred choice of the rail users while at railway stations.
Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) provides services in nine states (seven Northeastern states and two eastern India states namely Bihar & West Bengal). All A1, A, B, D class stations within NF Railway’s jurisdiction were covered with Wi-Fi facility in phase - 1.
The release added that majority of district headquarters that have railway stations have now been provided with Wi-Fi network. This year, 295 stations on NFR (54 stations of Katihar Division, 55 stations of Alipurduar Division, 64 stations of Rangiya Division, 87 stations of Lumding Division and 35 stations of Tinsukia Division) will be provided with Wi-Fi under Corporate Social Responsibility Scheme by M/s Tata Trust. Architecture for commissioning the access points is being executed by RailTel and Wi-Fi will be installed and operational shortly.
Free Wi-Fi services to passengers are being provided under ‘RailWire’ brand - the retail Broadband initiative of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations.
To use the Wi-Fi, the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode in the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. After the RailWire homepage network automatically appears on the phone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number on the homepage.
The user will get one-time password (OTP) in the form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP, users will be able to access high speed internet and can start internet browsing.
It was estimated that 20,000 users in Railway premises everyday are first time users of the internet. According to the release, free Wi-Fi provided till Financial Year (FY) 2018-19 was 68 stations, target in FY 2019-20 by Tata Trust - 295 stations, installation completed so far in FY 2019-20 - 91 stations, work in progress for installation for FY 2019-20 -204 stations and commissioning completed so far for FY 2019-20 was 3 stations.
