Maligaon, August 23: To fulfil Prime Minister’s Digital India initiative, the Ministry of Railways proposed to provide free Wi-Fi facility to rail users in 4791 Railway stations across the country. In NFR 363 stations spreading across various states will have the facility. Till date, N. F. Railway has already provided free Wi-Fi facility in 168 Railway Stations and work is under progress in remaining 195 stations.
The N. F. Railway covers total nine states (07 North-eastern states and 02 Eastern India states). All major stations within N. F. Railway’s jurisdiction were covered with Wi-Fi facility in phase – I. Majority of the District headquarters that have railway stations have now been provided with Wi-Fi network.
In Phase-II, 295 stations on NFR are being taken up for installation of Wi-Fi 54 in Katihar Division, 55 in Alipurduar Division, 64 in Rangiya Division, 87 in Lumding Division and 35 in Tinsukia Division of which work has been completed in 100 stations on 21st August.
With this N. F. Railway has become the first Railway zone in the Eastern region to complete provision of Wi-Fi in 100 stations within a span of just 41 days. Wi-Fi installation is going on under Corporate Social Responsibility by M/s Tata Trust in 100 days target. RailTel Corporation of India, a public sector undertaking owning a pan India optic fiber network along the track, is the executing agency.
Talking about the Wi-Fi at the stations of NF Railway, Mr Sanjive Roy, GM/NFR, said “Northeast Frontier Railways is an important zone of Indian Railways. Wi-Fi at 168 stations of this zone will prove to be really helpful for the passengers. The response to the Wi-Fi at Railway stations of N F Railways has been phenomenal.
With number of stations increasing with each passing day the Wi-Fi facility is reaching more and more people.” Mr Sameer Dikshit, Principal Chief Signal & Telecommunication Engineer/NFR said that “Right now, the pace of execution is very high and we will complete the target of 295 stations during Phase-II within the targeted time”.
Free Wi-Fi services to passengers are being provided under ‘RailWire’ brand – the retail Broadband initiative of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a Smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations.
