Indian Railways is all set to make all its Railway stations Wi-Fi enabled by March 2019. The initiative is taken under the government’s digital India Initiative. As per the report, approximately 8500 railway stations in the country including rural and remote areas will be equipped with Wi-Fi facilities at a cost of Rs. 700 crore ($110 million).
Indian railway currently has digitized 216 railway stations in the country. The facility has enabled almost seven million rail passengers to use the free Wi-Fi facilities at those railway stations.
As per the plan the 8500 chosen stations have been divided into two parts that is 1200 and 7,300. Out of these at 1200 stations only Wi-Fi facilities will only be available to passengers. Whereas remaining 7,300 stations will not only serve passengers but also to local people in rural and remote areas. The internet facility to rural areas via Wi-Fi at railway stations is the part of the digital makeover of rural India to promote e-governance.
Not only this all rural ares railway stations will be having kiosks with Wi-Fi. And along with providing internet facilities, these will also serve other services like:
- Digital banking,
- Aadhaar generation,
- Issuing government certificates such as birth and death certificates,
- Filing taxes
- Paying bills many more
As per the plan of digitizing all railway stations of India, 600 stations will be ready with Wi-Fi facilities till March 2018 and whole 8500 stations will be covered by the March 2019.
