Google to connect 100 railway stations in India through Wi-Fi

“One hundred stations will have Wi-Fi by December 2016. Mumbai Central (station) to go live by January. This is in partnership with RailTel,” Sundar Pichai announced at a Google for India event. 

The telecom wing of the Indian Railways, RailTel, had signed an agreement with the subsidiary of Google India to provide Wi-Fi facilities at 400 stations across the country. This is part of the US-based firm’s focus on bringing Internet to everyone in India, which has the world’s second largest population.

During his two-day visit, Pichai will meet President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. 

“Google is looking at hiring people for Bangalore and Hyderabad... We will also build huge new campus in Hyderabad to build capabilities,” the Chennai-born Chief Executive Officer said. 

Pichai added that as part of Google’s efforts to help women get online, the company is expanding its bicycle for women programme nationally. 

“From a pilot project, we will now expand the programme to cover three lakh villages in three years,” he said. 

In July this year, Google along with Tata Trusts, launched an initiative to provide rural women in India with internet literacy. Named “Internet Saathi” the initiative will use “internet cycle carts” (bicycles) to reach rural villages and educate women on the basic benefits of using the Internet.