NEW DELHI: Surfing the internet is set to become faster and easier at the New Delhi railway station from Thursday.

Railways minister Suresh Prabhu will inaugurate the facility aimed at providing Wi-Fi services to passengers at the busiest station in the national capital.

The initiative is being implemented by Rail Tel – a railways PSU providing telecom infrastructure. A senior railways official pointed out that the trial at all the platforms of the station has almost been completed.

The service provider is finalizing the nitty-gritty like free time limit and the charges for using the facility. The facility would be provided at other major stations in the city after judging the response at the New Delhi station.

Bangalore City railway station was the first in the country to have its own Wi-Fi network for passengers which was commissioned in October.

The facility was made available to passengers, on their mobile phones, free of charge for the first 30 minutes. After that, you can purchase more browsing time online through your credit card, or buy a scratch card at the Wi-Fi help desk. These are priced at Rs 25 for 30 minutes and Rs 35 for one hour, and are valid for 24 hours.

The high-speed Wi-Fi internet facility to rail passengers was promised in the railway budget by then minister D V Sadananda Gowda .

The railways PSU RailTel is mandated to provide Wi-Fi facilities at other ‘A1’ & ‘A’ category stations as well.

Railways has set an ambitious target of introducing Wi-Fi across 400 stations all over the country, and in some select trains ( Rajdhani , Shatabdi , Duranto category).

Wi-Fi facility in Howrah Rajdhani Express has been provided as a pilot project which would be extended to other elite trains. This facility will be provided selecting suitable technology for continuous connectivity with the web when the train is on the move.

As of now the work is in progress to provide WiFi facility at 75 ‘A1’ category stations such as Dadar and CST in Mumbai, Thane, Chennai Central and Trivandrum Central.

An official said that these stations are expected to be covered in the next 12 months and subsequently work in A category stations will be taken up.