Railways landmark: 3000th station gets Wi-Fi, 1000 enabled in just 15 days

Reaching a landmark, the railways enabled free Wi-Fi at its 3000th station as the facility went live at Rajasthan's Ellenabad on Monday, with 1,000 stations connected in just 15 days, officials said.

Ellenabad railway station in Bikaner Division of North Western Railway is situated north of the Ghaggar-Hakra river and serves as a point of entry into the state of Haryana from Rajasthan.

On August 3 this year, Rajasthan's Rana Pratap Nagar, also in the North Western Railway, became the 2000th station to have wi-fi facility.

The railways plans to provide free Wi-Fi facility at all its stations, around 6,000.

The railways' free Wi-Fi facility at stations began from Mumbai Central in January 2016 and within 16 months it was live at 1,600 stations across India. Railway's telecommunications arm RailTel began the process with a vision to turn stations into a platform for digital inclusion.

RailTel has now roped in Tata Trust for providing the facility at remaining stations in the country.

"We are going full throttle for providing Wi-Fi at all assigned stations. A thousand stations across India have been enabled with Wi-Fi in mere 15 days time which speaks volumes of the capability and dedication of the team", said Puneet Chawla, CMD, RailTel.

To use the facility, a user has to switch on the Wi-Fi mode on the smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. The RailWire homepage automatically appears on the smartphone.

The user is then prompted to enter his or her mobile number on the homepage to get a one-time password (OTP). The OTP has to be entered in the homepage of RailWire. After entering the OTP, the user can access high speed internet and can start browsing.