Mumbai: Indian Railways has been at the forefront of implementing Digital Initiatives realizing the dream of Digital India and information technology-oriented passenger applications/amenities like the National Train Enquiry System and the Passenger Reservation System. As a part of it, Indian Railways is forging ahead with providing access to Internet Facilities to the passengers through its Wi-Fi Network Connectivity/ facility at Railway Stations.
In a major public friendly measure, 379 stations on Central Railway have been equipped with free high speed Wi-Fi Internet Connectivity over 4152 Route Kms of Central Railway covered with OFC (Optical Fiber Cable). Work of making this facility available at these Stations on Central Railway has been completed.
Division wise coverage on Central Railway is:
Mumbai Division: 88 Stations
Bhusaval Division: 83 Stations
Nagpur Division: 74 Stations
Pune Division: 56 Stations
Solapur Division: 78 Stations
The responsibility to implement this remarkable Digital India initiative has been entrusted to Railway Mini Ratna PSU “RAILTEL” and has so far commissioned this facility at 6070+ stations across India.
This is one of the largest and fastest public Wi-Fi networks in the world. Indian Railways intend to provide Wi-Fi at all (except the halt ones) Railway stations and only few hundred stations are left to reach the mark where work is in progress.
Railway Stations are places where a cross-section of the society converges. The quickening pace of modernisation and manifold increase in smartphone usage has triggered a ‘Digital India’ revolution. Envisaged in 2015 Rail Budget, the project of providing free Wi-Fi Internet facility at stations aims to bring free Wi-Fi access to railway stations across India.. This includes small stations located in remote villages as well.
Public visiting stations can use this facility for streaming High Definition (HD) Videos, download of movies, songs, games, and do their offices work online. Students appearing for competitive exams, especially UPSC, RRB, RRC, graduation, HSC & SSC aspirants from remote locations with limited access to the internet, use the station Wi-Fi facilities for their preparations. Passengers are also using this facility for leveraging entertainment on their personal devices.
Feedback from Passengers at Major Stations across Central Railway at Dadar, Manmad, Bhusaval, Nagpur, Balharshah, Pune, Miraj, Solapur, Ahmednagar and Kalaburgi indicate excellent connectivity, seamless data access and great facility for the passengers.
The Railwire Wi-Fi facility is very user friendly. To switch on the connection, passengers need to scan Wi-Fi options and choose Railwire. Once the browser takes the user to the Railwire portal, it will ask for a mobile number to which a One Time Password (OTP) will be sent. Once connected, the Wi-Fi connection will last for 30 minutes. This helps the rail passengers to stay connected and updated with railway information.
