Rail Budget 2013: Free Wi-Fi Facility Will Be Provided On Select Trains

How do you access the internet on trains? The railways seem to have an answer for that., During the Railway Budget 2013, Railways Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal proposed free Wi-fi facility for some trains. Yes, passengers will be able to connect to the internet, while they are traveling on trains. However, this facility will be available only on select trains.

The Railways Minister also announced that the e-ticketing system on the IRCTC Web site would be improved by the end of the year. The new system will be better equipped to handle booking traffic.

Business Line reports that the new system will be able to support 7,200 tickets per minute compared to the 2000 tickets per minute, that is currently supported by the system. The system will be able to support 1,20,000 simultaneous users at any point of time compared to the present capacity of 40,000 users.

The new system is also reported to come wrapped with advanced security measures to further improve smooth sale of tickets.

Bansal said "This will bring about a paradigm shift in Internet rail ticketing by significantly improving the end user experience with respect to ease of use, response time as well as capacity,''

Bansal also explained on how the Railways is also planning to link train tickets with Aadhar cards to counter, tout problems in bookings. "We are exploring the possibility of linking Aadhar system with issuing of train tickets and if this happens, the tout menace will be effectively curbed in ticketing system,'' he said.

Introduction of Wi-Fi sure does seem like a major development, but is this a right move from the Railways? There is a growing sentiment that the Railways should concentrate on providing a better train service, rather then a Wi-Fi facility.