The Indian Railways have set the goal of providing Wi-Fi facilities to 400 ‘A1’ & ‘A’ category stations in the entire country. However, there is no information about the set time limit for the target.
New Delhi Railway Station in the national capital will enjoy the Wi-Fi facility from Thursday. Bombay Central, CST, Bandra, Borivili and Thane stations in Mumbai are next in line to receive Wi-Fi facility. A meeting of the railway board is called for on Thursday to discuss about the renovation of the Surat Railway station which was started in 1860. Surat Railway Station in Gujarat will be changed into a modern railway hub A high-level panel was constituted by Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu to suggest the methods to improve the financial condition of the railways. DK Mittal, former secretary to the government, will be the chairman of this nine-member committee.
Railway Minister will inaugurate the Wi-Fi service at New Delhi Railway Station. According to ministry of railways an Indian railways-run PSU, Rail Tel, will implement and operate the Wi-Fi system. The trial run of the system was successfully carried out in different stations in New Delhi.
The Ministry also announced that if the WiFi at NDLS is a success, then all the ‘A1’ and ‘A’ category in the national capital will get this facility soon. According to a top railway official, ‘A1 and A’ category Railway Stations in Mumbai will be the next to get Wi-Fi facility, in the next phase.
The first station to get the facility was Bangalore railway station in October this year during the short period when Sadananda Gowda was the Railway Minister.
The Wi-Fi system will be available for free for a short period of time of about half an hour and after that the service will be charged for every 30 minutes or on an hourly basis. Rail Tel is still working on these details. Railways also have plans to introduce the Wi-Fi system in Shatabdi, Rajdhani and Duranto trains. The pilot project was started in Howrah-Rajdhani express and is working accurately. There will be many travelers who will be happy with the new improvement in railways.
Surat is the second most earning Railway Station under the Mumbai division and the second largest city in Gujarat and a number of important trains halt and pass via Surat. Prabhu has asked the committee to provide the report within 20 days time and the report is expected to be ready 21st of December 2014.