Tata Will Provide Free WiFi Across 4000 Railway Stations; Hailed As Indian Rail’s Biggest CSR Initiative!

$135 billion worth Tata Group has decided to provide free WiFi across 4000 railway stations in India. This massive exercise will be conducted as part of Tata Group’s CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) initiative.

This plan to offer free WiFi for Indian Rail passengers has been described as Indian Rail’s largest CSR initiative.

Free WiFi Across 4000 Railway Stations: Biggest CSR Initiative

As part of their CSR initiative, Tata Group has promised to provide absolutely free WiFi across 4000 railway stations in India.

There are a total of 8000 railway stations in India, out of which 2000 have been removed from the list of WiFi powered spots, as they have very less footfall.

N Kashinath, Director General, Signal and Telecommunications, Railway Board confirmed this, as he said, “We will be signing an MoU with Tata Trusts for 4,000-plus stations soon,”

This initiative of Tata Group to jump into WiFi distribution has been finalized due to efforts of Railways Minister Piyush Goel, who convinced Tata Group management to offer this free service.

Indian Railways will not spend a penny on this massive initiative.

In a meeting of Railway Board members at PMO office last year, it was decided that corporates and brands will be roped in to provide free WiFi access, and this CSR-led activity by Tata is a big win for the Govt. and Railways.

Testing Successful Across 8 Railway Stations

To kickstart this exercise, Indian Railways and Tata Group decided to test the process of providing free WiFi across 8 railway stations which are situated between Bengaluru and Mysore.

This Proof of Concept has been successful, and now, the process of establishing free WiFi will be implemented across 4000 Railway Stations.

C H Mohan, Principal Chief Signalling Engineer of South Western Railway confirmed this, as he said, “Including Nayandahalli and Hejjeala in Bengaluru city area, there are 12 stations between Bengaluru and Mysore of which Tata Trusts has been given eight stations for PoC,”

Free WiFi Across All Railway Stations

Google and Indian Railways have already collaborated to provide free WiFi across 712 railway stations, since 2015. Out of them, 400 are the biggest railway stations with the highest footfall.

More than 80 lakh rail passengers have used this free WiFi by Google, and the numbers are growing at an incredible pace.

Besides Google, Indian Railways have also partnered with Power Grid to provide free Wifi across 100 Railways stations. This too has been done under their CSR initiative.

Now, as the CSR route is proving to be a success, Indian Rail is expected to approach more corporates and brands to pitch in, and help them to spread the usage of WiFi across India.

We will keep you updated, as more details come in.