543 S Rly stations now Wi-Fi enabled
CHENNAI: Southern Railway (SR) has created a record of sorts by equipping 543 railway stations in its jurisdiction with free high-speed Wi-Fi connectivity. Around 5,087 route kms of SR has been covered with OFC (Optical Fibre Cable), completing the work of making the facility available at 100% stations (except halt stations) in the zone.
An official communique issued by SR stated that the responsibility to implement the remarkable Digital India initiative was entrusted on RAILTEL. Southern Railway, which has been launching awareness campaigns for promoting this facility through videos and messages on social media, regular announcements, hoardings and banners at stations, said that the Wi-Fi facility was one of the largest and fastest public networks in the world.
SR claimed that the feedback from passengers at major stations like MGR Chennai Central, Chennai Egmore, Tambaram, Salem, Coimbatore, Madurai, Tiruchchy, Thiruvananthapuram and Ernakulam Jn indicated excellent connectivity, seamless data access.
To use the facility, passengers need to scan Wi-Fi options and choose Railwire. Once the browser takes the user to the Railwire portal, it would ask for a mobile number to which a One Time Password (OTP) would be sent. Once connected, the Wi-Fi connection will last for 30 minutes. The facility would be free for the first 30 mins of usage every day at 1 Mbps speed. For using the facility further at a higher speed, the user needs to choose a plan with higher speed by paying a nominal fee via net banking, wallet or credit card. The plans vary from Rs 10/day (for 5 GB @ 34 MBPS) to Rs. 75/30 day (for 60 GB @ 34 MBPS) excluding GST.