1,500 railway stations in India are now Wi-Fi enabled

New Delhi: Giving a boost to Modi government's ‘Digital India’ initiative, RailTel has provided free high-speed Wi-Fi services to as many as 500 stations in just seven days. Sahibabad has become the 1500th station in the country to get free Wi-Fi facility provided by RailTel, as per an ANI report. RailTel Corp. of India is a PSU under the Ministry of Railways which focuses on providing broadband and VPN services.

RailWire Wi-Fi by RailTel is now Live at 1500 Railway Stations across the country. Sahibabad Railway station of Northern Railway becomes the 1500th Station to be live with RailWire Wi-Fi. 500 stations Wi-Fi made live in mere 7 days time. #DigitalIndia #Digitalrail pic.twitter.com/o72DQFL2VO

— RailTel (@RailTel) April 5, 2019

In order to set up free Wi-Fi at all railway stations on the Indian Railways network (except the halt stations) within a year, RailTel has tied up with Tata Trusts for providing Wi-Fi at 4,791 B, C, D and E category stations, the ANI report said.

So far, the entire Delhi-Ambala and Ambala-Chandigarh sections and Kalka Shimla Hill Railways have been covered with free Wi-Fi service at stations.

"The project was initiated from Mumbai Central Station and Sahibabad gets the distinction of becoming the 1500th station to get access to free Wi-Fi. We are now targeting the smaller stations and striving to complete the project by the year-end," ANI quoted chairman and managing director of RailTel Puneet Chawla as saying.

"These are very small stations catering to the rural population and low-density areas. As there is a visible digital divide between rural and urban India, the rural population is often deprived of the latest telecom infrastructure mainly provided by the private operators. The Indian Railways has taken the initiative of providing free Wi-Fi at the stations so that not only the rail users but the local populace also can benefit from it," he added.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.