More passengers use the free Wi-Fi service at Tatanagar than at Ranchi or Kharagpur stations, a railway survey has revealed.
The survey, carried out by RailTel Corporation of India, which is a PSU providing free Wi-Fi on A1 and A category stations, pointed out that 1,22,149 passengers logged in to the Wi-Fi service at Tatanagar in November. At Ranchi station, the number was 87,131.
In fact, A1 category Tatanagar has the highest number of users among stations across four South Eastern Railway (SER) divisions, namely, Chakradharpur, Ranchi, Kharagpur and Adra.
Hatia, an A-category railway station under Ranchi division, saw 26,867 user logins in November while Kharagpur station, where daily passenger footfall is more than Tatanagar and is the busiest station under SER zone, saw user logins of 1,21,775.
“Tatanagar railway station’s Wi-Fi user logins were more among the 10 A1 and A category stations under the South Eastern Railway zone,” RailTel public relations officer Sucharita Pradhan told The Telegraph on Friday.
As of now, the 10 stations across four SER divisions that have Wi-Fi are Tatanagar, Jharsuguda, Rourkela, Ranchi, Hatia, Bokaro, Kharagpur, Purulia, Digha and Balasore.
According to Pradhan, the aggregate data consumption at Tatanagar railway station was also way higher than the rest of the stations. In November, Tatanagar used 53.2 terabyte while in Ranchi the usage was for 42.7 terabyte. At Kharagpur railway station, it was 20.7 terabyte while it was only 13.5 terabyte at Hatia station.
“Our technical team monitored the Wi-Fi data usage through the month of November and reached this conclusion,” she said, adding that such an exercise was carried out for the first time.
The Wi-Fi facility at Tatanagar railway station was introduced after a trial run in January last year. With the introduction of the wi-fi service, passengers are able to send WhatsApp messages, download movies and check Facebook feeds while waiting for trains at platforms.
A rough estimate suggests that Tatanagar railway station sees a daily passenger footfall of around 40,000 compared to Kharagpur’s 65,000.
RailTel Corporation, one of the largest telecom infrastructure providers of the country, took about five months to install equipment before the launch of the Wi-Fi facility which is free for the first 30 minutes of use. After that the speed reduces gradually.
“I always use the free Wi-Fi service at Tatanagar station before boarding trains. I have no problems logging in and watching YouTube videos and downloading movies,” said Bharat Vasani, a local businessman and a senior functionary of Singhbhum Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
SER chief public relations officer Sanjay Ghosh said Tatanagar, under Chakradharpur railway division, was chosen for the Wi-Fi project because of its status as an A1-category station.
“It is also an important railway junction on the Howrah-Mumbai main line,” he noted.
In 2016, Tatanagar made it to the list of 100 stations that had wireless fidelity in the first phase of what was Google’s gift to India.
