Rlys drops project to provide wifi facility on running trains: Goyal

The Ministry of Railways has dropped plans to provide wifi facility on running trains, the government said Friday.

In a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said as a pilot project, the railways had provided wifi-based internet facility in Howrah-Rajdhani train through satellite communication technology.

"This technology was capital intensive with recurring cost in the form of bandwidth charges and thus was not cost effective. Also, the internet bandwidth availability to passengers was inadequate. Hence, the project was dropped," he said.

"Presently, wi-fi based Internet facility for providing reliable, cost effective and adequate internet bandwidth (~ 2Mbps per user) on moving trains is not available," he said.

The railways has however said while 1,606 stations across railways' network already have free wifi, it will be extended to the remaining 4,791 stations within this year.

Goyal said the ministry has taken steps to install CCTV cameras in all coaches of Premium, Mail, Express and Suburban trains. CCTV cameras in 7,020 coaches of such trains have been planned during Phase-I of the installation project.