The government on Wednesday informed the Parliament that the railways has dropped the project to provide internet connection in trains citing lack of cost-effectiveness. The clarification was made by Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw while responding to a question in the Lok Sabha.
Vaishnaw noted that Wi-Fi-based internet facility was provided in the Howrah Rajdhani Express train through communication technology as a pilot project. However, "This technology was capital intensive with recurring costs in the form of bandwidth charges and thus, was not cost effective. Also, the internet bandwidth availability to passengers was inadequate," he said.
"Hence, the project was dropped. At present, suitable cost-effective technology for provision of Wi-Fi-based internet services in trains is not available," he claimed.
In 2019, former railway minister Piyush Goyal had said that the Centre is planning to provide trains with Wi-Fi services in the next 4-4.5 years.
Presently, about 6000 stations countrywide have Wi-Fi facilities on a self-sustainable basis with no cost to the Indian Railways. They have been provided with the help of RailTel, a public sector undertaking under the Ministry of Railways.