Union minister Piyush Goyal. (File)Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal announced that as many as 6,441 stations will have free WiFi by Ganesh Chaturthi while launching railway development projects in New Delhi today. The minister has called it one of the biggest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative in the history of Indian Railways and also perhaps the largest. The project has been undertaken by Tata Trusts under the initiative to install free WiFi at railway stations free of cost.
Piyush Goyal said, “In 151 days from today all 6441 stations to have free wifi, by around Ganesh Chaturthi.”
151 days from today all 6441 stations to have free wifi, by around Ganesh Chaturthi: Piyush Goyal @IndianExpress https://t.co/6bb5bwiJBn
— Avishek Dastidar (@avishekgd) March 8, 2019
Among a host of other announcements he also announced that as many as 500 more railway stations will be upgraded and beautified, the National High-Speed Rail Plan will upgrade 10 routes to high speed and at least 2,400 new toilets will be constructed at railway stations in circulating areas.
Read | Railways ropes in Tata group for WiFi in over 4,000 stations
Earlier, the ministry had approved for a new railway zone in Andhra Pradesh which will be ready and fully operational in 36 months, the minister notified today.
Also, the Railways had approved 291 stoppages this financial year, around 200 more were already approved by Goyal and were awaiting implementation around that time, sources said.
With Lok Sabha election dates expected to be announced soon, the Railways Ministry has fast-tracked approvals to MPs who have demanded additional train stops in their constituencies across the country.
