Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics & Information Technology, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw has informed that Wi-Fi services have been provided at 6071 Railway Stations across India so far. These are available to the general public free of cost for the first half an hour of any day and on a chargeable basis, subsequently.
Provision of Wi-Fi at Railway stations facilitates Railway passengers in accessing the internet while at the stations. Wi-Fi at Railway stations is helping the public to avail online services/information, thereby contributing towards Digital India initiative of the Government.
The total data usage on these stations is of the order of 97.25 Terabytes per month approx.
No separate funds have been sanctioned by Ministry of Railways for this scheme. Funds amounting to ₹ 27.22 crores have been sanctioned by Department of Telecom (DoT) under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for provision of Wi-Fi services at 193 Railway stations in rural areas. Wi-Fi services at 1287 Railway stations (mostly A1 & A category stations) are being provided by M/s RailTel Corporation of India Limited (RCIL). In the remaining stations, Wi-Fi services have been provided under Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)/Charity projects of various firms for which no capital expenditure is incurred.