Over 500 Central and Western Railway stations get Wi-Fi connectivity

This picture has been used for representational purpose only

The Central Railway has so far provided free Wi-Fi facility at 224 stations with 42 stations in Mumbai Division, 27 stations under Bhusaval Division, 66 under Nagpur Division, 44 under the Pune Division and 45 stations under the Solapur division. After crossing the 500 figure, the work of extending the Wi-Fi connectivity to more 159 railway stations is in full swing.

On the other hand, the Western Railway has achieved the important milestone by scoring a triple century of free Wi-Fi facility on the pitch of Digital India Mission by providing this facility at its 300 stations including Suburban and Non-Suburban stations across the Western Railway.

Also Read: Google, RailTel expand free WiFi reach, cover 9 more stations

The Ministry of Railways had proposed to provide Wi-Fi facility to rail users at 4,791 railway stations across the Indian Railways network. RailWire Wi-Fi at railway stations is quite popular and even though passengers have easy access to mobile internet, Wi-Fi is still a preferred choice of rail users today.

High-speed Wi-Fi services at Railway stations are being provided by RailTel with high-speed end to end network connectivity on the Optical Fibre Cable (OFC). Railway stations are the places where a cross-section of the people congregate for their transportation needs.

The Digital India initiative is part of bridging the digital divide and providing a highspeed access network to all rail users. The free wi-fi facility shall provide railway passengers to remain connected while waiting for the train at stations. They can also use the free wi-fi facility for streaming high-resolution videos, do their office work online, etc.

Also Read: WiFi in 400 railway stations by next year: Suresh Prabhu

How to access Wi-Fi at railway stations:
Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a smartphone with a working mobile connection for KYC considerations. In order to use the Wi-Fi facility, the user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode in the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. Once the RailWire homepage network appears on the smartphone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number on the homepage. Post which, the user will get a one-time password (OTP) in the form of SMS text message which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP, the rail users will be able to access high-speed internet and can start browsing the internet.

On the Western Railway, the free wi-fi facility was recently commissioned at Amalsad station of Mumbai Division of the Western Railway, which is 300th station of WR. In the near future, the free-wifi facility will be extended to 125 more stations over the WR.

On Western Railway, the work of extending it to 125 more stations is in full swing. Passengers can access high-speed Internet facility free of cost at railway stations for a period of 30 minutes on their smartphone.

Also Read: Free WiFi service rolled out at Ooty railway station

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