India’s first wi-fy railway station at Bangalore

Bangalore railway station will be come the first in India to be equipped with wi-fi connectivity by August this year,

Disclosing this to reporters, Rail Tel Corporation of India’s Managing Director K K Bajpeyee said the infrastructural facilities, including the telecommunication tower, was already in place at Bangalore railway station. “In the next two months, wi-fy facility will be available to train passengers at Bangalore railway station”, he said.

Rail Tel had already signed an agreement with Bangalore-based Airlink company, a subsidiary of American multinational company Pronto.

Initially, wi-fy connectivity will be available within a radius of 2 to 4 kilometres. But, it will gradually expand to cover larger region including the surrounding commercial and residential areas.

Soon after Bangalore railway station becomes wi-fy enabled, the facility will be commissioned at Jaipur railway station. “It will deliver a new experience to passengers by deploying wi-fi hotspots at railway stations. It will be delivered on wimax/wi-fi-based platform and will provide Internet services to having wi-fi/wimax enabled computers and laptops”, he said.

Rail Tel has chalked out plans to provide wi-fy connectivity to 50 railway stations across the country in the first phase. Subsequently, it will be expanded to 500 stations.

Bajpeyee also expressed confidence of providing wi-fi connectivity inside the compartments of running trains in the next two to three years. “If more mobile towers are set up, wi-fi connectivity can be provided even inside moving trains, allowing the passengers to convert their compartments into hi-tech offices”, he said.

Though Rail Tel had established Internet cafes at more than 20 railway stations across the country under the brand of “Cyber Express”, Bajpeyee said the returns at small stations were not remunerative to the persons running the cafes.

“The daily earnings at small stations barely cross Rs 600 to Rs 800. However, the cafes at some of the big railway stations like Pune were doing well with the owners earning around Rs 4,000 daily”, he said and emphasizing the need to revise the business plans with regard to Cyber Express.