Minister of State of Railways Shri Rajen Gohain informed that Ministry of Railway has decided to provide free Wi-Fi facility at all stations except Halt stations, without involving any expenditure on Railways’ account. Against the target for provision of Wi-Fi at 100 stations in 2016-17, 200 stations in 2017-18 & 500 stations in 2018-19, 707 stations have been provided with Wi-Fi facility as on date. RailTel has entered into an agreement with M/s Mahataa Information India Private Ltd. (MIIPL) (a group company of M/s Google Inc.) for providing Wi-Fi facility at “A1” and “A” category of stations.
The cost of providing Wi-Fi at “A1” and “A” category of stations where RailTel has entered into agreement with M/s Mahataa Information India Private Ltd. (MIIPL) is shared by RailTel and M/s MIIPL. RailTel has been advised to follow revenue sharing model for “B” & “C” category stations also. Department of Telecommunication has been approached to provide funds under Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for Wi-Fi at D & E category stations.