Indian Railways to offer free Wi-Fi on trains
The Indian Railways will invest in a US$1.1 million free Wi-Fi pilot project levaraging satellite technology to service its busy New Delhi train route.
In a statement Wednesday, the Railways Minister Pawan Kumar announced that passengers travelling on the Howrah Rajdhani Express (HRE) from West Bengal to New Delhi can access free Wi-Fi.
Over 17 hours the HRE traverses every type of terrain, travelling 1,451 km to and from the Indian capital to Howrah, West Bengal. Train no. 12302 travels halfway across the subcontinent.
The HRE was India's first fully air-conditioned train and now satellite antenna fixed to one of the the two power cars will supply a 4 Mbps/512 Kbps Internet connection to the cross-country commuters. This is distributed via Wi-Fi radios attached to each coach, which contains an internal access point.
To register for access, passengers must provide their passenger name record (PNR) and mobile number, and the Indian Railways will SMS the login ID and password valid for a single journey.
Indian Railways plans to extend this service on other express train services in the future, alongside several technology projects designed to reinforce the country's transport infrastructure.