Free WiFi At Stations Without Any Expenditure By Railways: MoS Railways

Minister of State (MoS) for Railways Rajen Gohain today (19 July) said that Indian Railways will provide WiFi facilities at all its stations, except halt stations, the Economic Times has reported. However, the department will not incur any expenditure on its part for the development.

The expenditure for providing WiFi in ‘A’ and ‘A1’ category stations will be borne by RailTel and Mahataa Information India Private Limited (MIIPL). RailTel has entered into an agreement with MIIPL, part of the Google group, for setting up WiFi facilities in ‘A’ and ‘A1’ category stations.

RailTel has been asked to follow a similar revenue sharing model for ‘B’ and ‘C’ category stations as well. Railways has approached Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to set up WiFi facilities in ‘D’ and ‘E’ category stations under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), the minister is reported to have said.

The government has provided WiFi facilities in 707 stations till date against the target of 100 in 2016-17, 200 in 2017-18 and 500 in 2018-19, the minister said in a written reply to a question in the parliament.

Recently, railway stations were categorised into A1, A, B, C, D, E and F on the basis of passenger earnings. This was done to ensure more practical and rational categorisation.