Three Indian railway trains namely the Chandigarh – New Delhi Shatabdi, Ahmedabad – New Delhi Rajdhani Express, and Kalka – New Delhi Shatabdi will soon be getting WiFi facility. The rail ministry has approved the proposal for implementing the service. Passengers travelling by the aforementioned trains will very soon be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi service on their journey. The facility will be available in less than 6 months.
For providing WiFi facility in one rake of a train, Rs. 2 crore is being spent. The project is said to be capital-intensive and also has high recurring cost in the form of bandwidth rentals. The railway ministry is making efforts to explore policy changes and will ask private companies to come out with a profit-sharing business model.
The Wi-Fi will have 512 Kbps upload bandwidth and 4 Mbps download bandwidth as its benchmark. The satellite antenna is being provided by ISRO. It will be placed in the power cars of the rakes and will be linked through WiFi radios which will be provided outside every coach. This will further help passengers to have continuous internet access throughout their journey.
To use the Wi-Fi service, passengers will need to access the Indian Railway WiFi network. They will further register themselves on the network by simply providing the PNR and the mobile phone number. Soon after the validation of the data, the passenger will receive the login ID and password through SMS to the registered mobile number, which will be valid for the entire journey.
Previously, in April 2013, the Indian railways had provided WiFi facility on the Howrah-New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express as a pilot project. This was done by using satellite communication technology. However, certain technical problems led to the temporary suspension of the facility.
This project was renewed last year after the NDA government directed the Indian Railways to extend free WiFi facility. Rajdhani/Shatabdi/Duronto express trains were given priority.
