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Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu today launched a free high-speed public Wi-Fi service in collaboration with technology giant Google at Mumbai Central, the first Indian Railways station in the country to get such facility. Here are top 10 points Prabhu made while addressing the gathering comprising senior railway officers, Google executives and passengers at the suburban railway station: (AP)
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1. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said termed the facility as 'world class', and that around 100 busiest Indian Railways stations across the country will be brought under the free public Wi-Fi service by 2016 end, making it the world’s largest such project. (AP)
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2. Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said, “When I proposed the full-fledged (Railway) budget last year, I had vowed to improve ailing condition of Indian Railways, and launching free Wi-Fi at Mumbai Central Station is one giant step towards improving the Railway”. (AP)
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Rail Budget 2016 expectations: Users also want the Indian Railways authorities to alert passengers through customised SMS on changes, if any, in train departure, arrival and its cancellation. "Citizens want the rail budget to ensure more drinking water taps at stations, more elevators and escalators for families, including elderly, children and physically challenged and functional toilets," said the survey. (AP)
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4. The Indian Railways project of providing free Wi-Fi connectivity at 400 railway stations across the country was announced last September during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the Google headquarters in the US. (PTI)
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5. The Vice-president and Managing Director of Google South East Asia and India, Rajan Anandan, said, “Google is delighted to launch India’s first high speed public Wi-Fi service in partnership with Indian Railways.” (PTI)
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6. “Bringing affordable Internet access to millions of people is an important part of making internet both easily accessible and useful for more than 300 million Indians who are already online, and the nearly one billion more who are not,” he added. (AP)
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Rail Budget 2016 expectations: In terms of amenities, the survey found that passengers wanted free WiFi from Indian Railways on many stations, wheelchairs on stations for the challenged, ramps, especially in the suburban services, to make platforms disabled-friendly. To avoid overcrowding, passengers wanted to be allowed to enter platforms a hour before the train departure.(AP)
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8. “The network is built for wide coverage and high capacity usage unlike a typical Wi-Fi hotspot which offers connectivity in limited area and poor experience. This network will extend to cover both Indian Railways long distance train stations and the local train station in Mumbai Central,” Rajan Anandan said. (AP)
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9. In a statement, Google said the four Indian Railways stations where free Wi-Fi facility would be provided soon are Allahabad, Patna, Jaipur and Ranchi, and other stations will follow very shortly. (PTI)
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