'Rlys drops project to provide wifi facility on trains'

The Ministry of Railways has dropped plans to provide WiFi facility on running trains, the government said on Friday.

As as a pilot project, the railways had provided WiFi-based internet facility in Howrah-Rajdhani train through satellite communication technology. However, it was found that this technology was capital intensive with recurring cost in the form of bandwidth charges and thus was not cost effective.

"Also, the internet bandwidth availability to passengers was inadequate. Hence, the project was dropped," Railway Minister Piyush Goyal informed Rajya Sabha on Friday.

"Presently, wi-fi based Internet facility for providing reliable, cost-effective and adequate internet bandwidth (~ 2Mbps per user) on moving trains is not available," he said.