Wi-Fi facility is available at 12 railway stations: Minister

NEW DELHI:Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu has said that the process has begun to introduce Wi-Fi services at stations while presenting Railway Budget 2016-17 in Parliament recently.

He proposed to commission Wi-Fi services at 100 stations this year and at 400 more stations in the next 2 years. He said that Indian Railways is partnering with Google in this endeavour.

Initially, "the Wi-Fi services have been proposed to be provided at 400 railway stations covering almost all ‘A1’ and ‘A’ category stations, after which the facility is proposed to be provided at remaining ‘A’ & ‘B’ category stations," said Minister of State for Railways Manoj Sinha.

Presently, "Wi-Fi facility is available at 12 railway stations viz. Bengaluru, New Delhi, Chennai, CST Mumbai, Mumbai Central, Ahmedabad, Agra Cantt., Secunderabad, Varanasi, Howrah, Madgaon and Ghazipur," said Sinha in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"Wi-Fi facility is proposed to be provided at 709 major railway stations, in A1, A & B category. The number-wise breakup of the 709 stations i.e. A1-75, A-332 & B-302," he added.