Free WiFi at all 6K Rly stations in next 120 days, says Goyal

New Delhi: Banking upon the services of the Google, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal is hoping that all 6,000 stations in the railway network would have free WiFi connections in the next 120 days if collaborations with private players like Google are successful.

While launching Rail Heritage Digitisation Project in collaboration with Google Cultural Institute, Goyal said that 711 railway stations already have free WiFi and his target was to reach the 6,000 station mark in the next four months.

Google with railways has provided free WiFi in over 400 stations, this shows how powerful collaborations can be and how it can be used to serve the people.

"We should expand this to all 6,000 stations so that local people in the vicinity of the stations, particularly from the poor or marginalised sections of the society can use this and enjoy the fruits of the country's development," the Rail Minister said.

The minister also highlighted the need for partnership in making this possible and urged Google to partner with railways to provide free WiFi in more stations.

"We have offered over 5,000 stations for public-private partnership on Rail Sahayog website for WiFi maybe Google can take some of these stations up. I hope to have WiFi connections in all 6,000 stations in the next 120 days in the spirit of partnership," he said.

"The Railways-Lifeline of the Nation' project will showcase the heritage of Indian Railways on Google Arts and Culture, an online platform of art and culture by the search engine giant. It will have more than 100 online exhibitions, more than 150 videos and 3.500 images.

It will offer an in-depth exploration of the sights, sounds and significance of Indian railways. The project will also bring alive the lesser known stories and heroic efforts of people like trackmen, station incharges and workshop engineers, to celebrate their contribution to India's railways.

On the occasion, Railway Board Chairman Ashwani Lohani said that collaboration with Google Art & Culture, has enabled Railways to digitise National Rail Museum, Rewari Steam Centre, three world heritage railways, CSMT Mumbai building and other prominent aspects of country's rail heritage.

Lohani appreciated the monumental efforts which went into this project of digitising the invaluable railway heritage. During the event, the CRB also felicitated few of the railway heroes associated with the conservation of world heritage railways and said that Railway is a human centric organisation and it is the railway heroes who make it run.

Google Arts & Culture has partnered with more than 1800 institutions in 80 countries globally, with 50 million people using the Google Arts & Culture platform every month. In India, Google Arts & Culture has partnered with over 50 cultural institutions to bring digital exhibits capturing country's rich culture online.

Meanwhile, in a bizarre incident, it came to notice that Google employees misbehaved with mediapersons and senior officials of Railways Ministry at the event.

According to the mediaperson, who was harassed by Google people at the event, Google staff refused to accept the identity card issued by government of India and invite issued by Rail Ministry for getting into the venue.