To fulfill the much awaited need, Ranchi railway station would provide Wi-Fi facility for railway commuters soon. The service, which was likely to be kicked off in January was delayed for some reasons, informed a senior railway official.
However, after analysing the various perspective and feasibility of the project, the concerned officials are now ready to start the Wi-Fi service at the station, in order to upgrade the essential services being provided by the largest entity of Government of India to passengers.
The facility of Wi-Fi at Ranchi Railway Station to enhance one of the ambitious projects ‘Digital India’ has been initiated with the assistance of Google and RailTel (Railway Telecom), a government of India enterprise, with a mission to make Information and Communication Technology (ICT) available to public at reasonable price.
“Ranchi railway station is all set to provide free Wi-Fi facilities to passengers. The facility would be available for a short span of time during which passengers can access internet for free. This service is being provided as part of nationwide scheme to provide internet access facility to 709 designated railway stations across the country. The service will kick off from next week, as official inauguration is yet to be done,” informed, Senior Divisional Commercial Manager, Neeraj Kumar.
Designed to offer rail users the best internet experience, RailTel, railway’s telecom wing, will provide internet services as Rail Wire via its extensive fiber network at the listed stations.
“All necessary arrangements have been made. However, method of accessing net, one time password, amount chargeable including time limit is yet to be finalised and approved. Nevertheless, the download speed is expected to be between 20 to 50 MBPS. The official declaration will be made soon on the matter,” added Kumar.
Platforms from one to five will be covered under Wi-Fi zone at Ranchi Railway Station and the services are likely to be expanded to other platforms too in the coming days.
Notably, in the first phase 100 railway stations across the nation have been targeted to link it with internet services under the government scheme as earliest. In the eastern zone Ranchi, Bhubaneswar and Raipur has been included in the list for upgrading the station and lashing it with internet services.