NEW DELHI: In a milestone achievement, the RailTel-one of the premier PSUs of the Ministry of Railway, has launched the Prime Minister Wi-Fi Access Network Interface, which is also called the ‘PM-WANI’ on Monday evening in common parlance, in one go at 100 railway stations in country’s 22 states.
Sharing details, Puneet Chawala-chairman-cum- MD of RailTel said that the RailTel as the country’s most widespread integrated Wi-Fi networks has taken responsibility of installing the PM-WANI eco-system.
“It(RailTel) will extend its Wi-Footprints beyond railway stations by leveraging its partnership with more than 7000 last-mile service providers to establish Wi-Fi hotspots in undeserved areas”, Chawala said, adding that it has also started making efforts to provide broadband connectivity in rural areas as part of digital India Mission.
At present, it has launched the PM-WANI services across 100 railway stations which have 2384 Wi-Fi hotspots in 22 states. Among these 100 railway stations, 71 fall under the categories of A1 and A while 29 stations come under other categories of railways.
Dwelling upon details of the PM WANI Wi-Fi service, Chawala said that one will have to download the android based app –Wi-DOT” from Google pay to make access to this PM –WANI wi- fi service at railway stations.
“This method to access to Wi-Fi at railway station through ‘Wi-DOT’ app during journey to passengers would be avaibale in addition to existing method of Wi-Fi. The PM-WANI based access will facilitate ease of use through one time ‘Know Your Customer’(KYC) to avoid one-time password(OTP) based authentication”, the sources said.
At present across the Indian Railways (IR), the Wi-Fi network is spread across 6,102 railway stations in the country with 17,792 Wi-Fi hotspots. Official sources said that the PM-WANI based access of RailTel’s Wi-Fi services at 6,012 railway stations will be completed by June 30 this year.
Besides all this, Chawala-the RailTel’s Chairman, through a statement claimed that the PM-WANI Wi-Fi hotspots would prove effective in extending cost-effective Internet to passengers at rural and remote railway stations across the country.