Mysuru: The passengers on Mysuru-Bengaluru trains can avail free WiFi facility at 17 Stations on the Bengaluru-Mysuru Railway section. The Railtel Corporation of India has successfully installed free WiFi zones at Bengaluru City, Nayandahalli, Kengeri, Hejjala, Bidadi, Ramanagaram, Channapatna, Settihalli, Maddur, Hanakere, Mandya, Yeliyur, Byadarahalli, Pandavapura, Srirangapatna, Naganahalli and Mysuru.

RailWire WiFi will be available for any user who has a smartphone with a working mobile connection for KYC (know your customer) considerations in the 138-km stretch between Bengaluru and Mysuru. The Disaster Management Institute (DMI) of Indian Railways coming up near Bengaluru is connected to Hejjala Station in this section, which makes the WiFi facility more useful to the commuters.

“In January alone, 3,16,157 users consumed 109.757 terrabytes of data. Also, once the upcoming DMI at Hejjala starts functioning, the WiFi at the stations will gain more significance as the footfall will rise exponentially,” said DRM of Bengaluru R.S. Saxena. The users can avail free WiFi at Stations by turning on the WiFi mode on their Smartphones and selecting the RailWire homepage network. After the RailWire WiFi appears on the Smartphone, the user has to enter one’s mobile number on homepage. The user will get a one-time password (OTP) in the form of SMS which has to be entered on the home page of RailWire.

It may be recalled that Mysuru division experimented with WiFi nine years ago and the country’s first WiFi facility at a Railway Station under PPP model was launched in 2010 at the Mysuru Station. The contract was given to a private vendor on an experimental basis for one year but there were not many users. But now with majority of commuters having Smartphones, it will be very useful to the travelling public, said a source in the Railways.