It will be great gift to the people on an auspicious occasion,” Goyal said while unveiling a plethora of projects before the model code of conduct kicks in. (Source: Reuters)Last year, he set a target to get all unmanned level crossings manned or eliminated in six months, by Ganesh Chaturthi. In a similar fashion, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal on Friday set a target of getting free Wi-Fi at 6,441 railway stations across India by August-end or Ganesh Chaturthi.
With this, all stations of Indian Railways will be public Wi-Fi-enabled, except for the smaller halt stations, which have been kept out of the ambit. “Let it be a target of 151 days, or by Ganesh Chaturthi, by which time this work should be done. It will be great gift to the people on an auspicious occasion,” Goyal said while unveiling a plethora of projects before the model code of conduct kicks in.
For instance, Railways announced what it termed a National High Speed Plan, which envisages 10 routes for high speed network to come up in the future. A modification of the existing Diamond Quadrilateral plan, which seeks to create a network of high-speed trains criss-crossing the country in various places, the National High Speed Rail Plan adds to the number of proposed high speed networks from five to 10. Five preliminary studies of proposed routes were done, commissioned during minister Suresh Prabhu’s time. The new plan, to study the feasibility, has not yet got the Cabinet vetting and its inter-ministerial consultation is going on. It touches cities like Kolkata, Varanasi, Patna, Tatanagar, Ranchi and others.
