Residents near railway stations may get free wifi as govt mulls options

Having installed public Wi-Fi hotspots at 5,500 railway stations, Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Wednesday said the government is now mulling allowing people residing nearby the stations to use the facility.

Women, farmers and students from nearby areas can come and surf the Internet at railway stations for betterment of their lives through the usage of modern means of communication technology, he said, speaking at the annual NASSCOM Technology and Leadership Forum (NTLF) here.

Goyal said the ministry had initially put the Wi-Fi facility at 410 railway stations with help from online ad giant Google, and then put another few using own money.

However, arranging funds for the project was a task, and hence, he put out a public message requesting corporates to come and help set up Wi-Fi at stations against branding opportunities.

He said Tata Trusts take forward with a proposal to do all the stations by themselves and thanked them for the same.

Having got the support and the facilities being operational, they've to be used for social development now, he said.  Meanwhile, he also exhorted the Indian IT industry to come out of a USD 100 billion per decade increase in revenues, and catapult the total output to USD 500 billion by end of 2030 from the present $191 billion.