NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways provided nearly 97.25 terabytes of data per month through its free wi-fi services in and around the thousands of railway stations nationwide, according to information shared by Union Railway and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw in the Rajya Sabha on Friday, December 10, 2021.
The Wi-Fi services have been started in railways in order to facilitate the passengers in accessing the internet while at stations for getting information and all details on railway services promoting the Digital India Initiative (DII) of the government.
Vaishnaw said Wi-Fi services are available to passengers at 6,071 railway stations across the country free of cost for the first half an hour, and on a chargeable basis thereafter.
“The total data usage on these railway stations is approximately 97.25 terabytes per month”, the minister informed the House, adding that no separate funds have been sanctioned for this scheme.
He also said a fund amounting to Rs 27.22 crore has been sanctioned by the Department of Telecom under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for Wi-Fi services at 193 railway stations in rural areas.
“Besides these, the Wi-Fi services are being provided to 1287 A1 and A category railway stations by M/S RailTel Corporation of India Limited. In the remaining stations, Wi-Fi services have been made available under Corporate Social Responsibility of various projects of various firms for which no capital expenditure incurred”, the minister stated.