NEW DELHI, July 28: Waiting for a train's arrival will no longer be boring, as Indian Railways is planning to equip India's busiest station with free Wi-Fi connectivity, the first in the country. New Delhi railway station, which handles about 300 trains and five lakh passengers a day, will be the first Wi-Fi enabled station in the country.
"A Mumbai-based company has been given the job to make the New Delhi station a Wi-Fi enabled station," a senior Railway Ministry official said, adding "the company was selected through a tender."
Wi-Fi is a popular networking technology which uses radio waves to provide wireless high-speed Internet and network connections.
Once operational, passengers on all 16 platforms of the station will be able to access Wi-Fi from their laptops or mobile phones, the official said.
The New Delhi station was chosen on a pilot basis to introduce the facility at an estimated cost of Rs. 80 lakh.
"The system is expected to be operational in 3 or 4 months," the official said.
The company will install towers at strategic locations to provide the facility, which will be extended to other stations in due course, he said.
The Railways has already made Howrah Rajdhani trains Wi-Fi enabled.
There are also plans to replace information kiosks with tablet computers at New Delhi station.
"We are exploring the option of mounting tablets on walls at certain places on the station for the benefit of passengers. The tablets will be equipped to disseminate information about the train position, expected arrival time and other relevant data required by the passenger," the official said
