Bangalore City Railway station to be wi-fi enabled

Bangalore City Railway station to be wi-fi enabled

The Hindu

VSNL all set to start operating a cyber café at the station

# VSNL selected as a franchisee to run cyber cafés at 80 railway stations
# Mysore and Hubli railway stations have been identified to set up such cafés
# The move is aimed at providing better convenience to passengers

Bangalore: Passengers waiting to board trains at the Bangalore City railway station can now look forward to spending their time more productively.

The station will soon become perhaps the first wi-fi enabled railway station in the country. Tata Group company VSNL is all ready to start operating a cyber café on the main concourse from the entrance of the railway station providing facilities such as Internet, audio/video chatting, Internet telephony, gaming, scanning, printing, photocopying, faxing and video-conferencing.

Passengers can even charge their mobile phones from the kiosk.

"The work on the cyber café is complete and is expected to be inaugurated in the next few days by the Minister of State for Railways," a senior official told The Hindu .

Railtel Corporation of India Ltd, a public sector undertaking functioning under the Ministry of Railways, had through a tendering process selected VSNL as a franchisee to run cyber cafes at 80 railway stations under Phase I of a plan to earn some extra revenues by leasing out space/land and Optical Fibre Cable connectivity.

Out of the planned 80 cafés, about 10 are getting ready for operation.

Mysore and Hubli railway stations that are currently being re-modelled have also been identified to set up such cafés under the project.

As per the deal, VSNL will operate the cafés and share a certain percentage of the revenues earned with Railtel on a quarterly basis.

"Passengers can access the facilities provided at the café by purchasing pre-paid coupons," the official said.

The VSNL will run the cafés for two years after which Railtel has the option to renew the deal with the franchisee for a further period based on performance, or the contract may be re-negotiated.

Though the cafés would bring in extra income, it was aimed at providing better convenience to passengers, the official said.

The Railway Ministry has issued detailed guidelines to various zonal railways to provide Internet facilities at railway stations.

The Ministry has authorised Railtel to implement the cyber café plan by roping in suitable private telecom franchisees.

On an average, each cyber café will cost around Rs. 6 lakh to Rs. 7 lakh and the expenditure on this account will be met by the franchisee.