Indian Railways commissions Wi-Fi facility at 6,000th station

New Delhi: With the commissioning of Wi-Fi at Hazaribagh Town railway station falling under Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand in Dhanbad Division of East Central Railway on Saturday, the Indian Railways commissioned Wi-Fi at 6,000 railway stations, it informed on Sunday.

In an official statement released today, the Indian Railways said that is continuing to extend the Wi-Fi facility at far-flung stations to connect the passengers and the general public with digital systems.

The first railway station with which the Indian Railways started its journey of providing Wi-Fi facility was that in Mumbai in January 2016, it said, adding that a railway station in Midnapore of West Bengal was the 5000th station and yesterday it reached the 6,000 mark with the Hazaribagh Town railway station.

Railways continues to connect different parts of India with high speed Wi-Fi facility.

The journey began in Jan 2016 with the first station & today Railways extended the high speed Wi-Fi facility at its 6,000th station. pic.twitter.com/yMUWhiYSuv

— Piyush Goyal (@PiyushGoyal) May 15, 2021

The Indian Railways further stated that Jarapada station in Angul district of Odisha was also provided with Wi-Fi the same day it was provided in Hazaribagh.

The Wi-Fi facility at railway stations meets the objectives of the aspiring Digital India Program of the Government of India and will bridge the digital divide between the rural and urban citizens thereby increasing the digital footprint in the rural villages and also enhance the user experience, it said.

The Indian Railways also mentioned that the provision of Wi-Fi facility at railway stations is on a self-sustainable basis with no cost to the Railways.

This facility was provided with the help of RailTel, a PSU under the Ministry of Railways. This task was carried out in partnership with Google, DOT (under USOF), PGCIL and Tata Trust, it added.