Wi-Fi connectivity is set to become commonplace in stations coming under South East Central Railway (SECR) jurisdiction soon.
According to officials, SECR which handles over 1.16 crore passengers on a monthly basis, is going to offer Wi-Fi facility in a total of 23 Railway stations by the end of this year.
“Railway authority will shortly be providing stations under SECR with Wi-Fi facility and most importantly, the facility will also be available at ‘A’ and ‘B’ type Railway stations falling under the zone. Of the 23 Railway stations to be equipped with Wi-Fi, two Railway stations meet the eligibility criteria of ‘A1’, seven have been put in ‘A’ category while 14 have been identified as ‘B’ category stations,” said SECR’s Chief Public Relations Officer (CPRO) RK Agrawal.
He said that based on annual passenger earning, Railway stations are classified into different categories like A1, A, B and other.
According to Agrawal, one ‘A1’ Railway station come under Bilaspur and Raipur Railway divisions each, of seven ‘A’ type Railway stations three falling in jurisdiction of Nagpur Division, two stations each in Raipur and Bilaspur Division whereas seven ‘B’ type Railway stations falling in Bilaspur Division, five in Nagpur Division and two in Raipur Division.
The CPRO further informed that Railway stations to be facilitated with Wi-fi facility are Bilaspur, Raipur, Raigarh, Champa, Bhilai Power House, Durg, Rajnandgaon, Gondia, Bhandara Road, Korba, Akaltara, Pendra Road, Anuppur, Shahdol, Umaria, Ambikapur, Bhatapara, Tilda, Dongargarh, Chhindwara, Ramtek, Chandafort and Itwari.
“The objective of equipping these Railway stations with Wi-fi facility is to provide more amenities to passengers,” stated Agrawal.
“Since the works to equip Railway stations will be carried out by RailTel Corporation of India limited under Ministry of Railways, prediction of time regarding installing of Wi-fi at these 23 railway stations is not possible,” he said , adding that two ‘A1’ Railway stations — Bilaspur and Raipur, will be equipped with Wi-fi facility by the end of this year and in another phase work in Railway stations of ‘A’ and ‘B’ category will be taken up. Notably, while presenting Railway budget for financial year 2015-16, Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu had announced that 400 Railway stations in the country will be facilitated with Wi-fi facility.
Several Railway stations in the country have already been equipped with Wi-fi facility which including Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai and Secunderabad.