RailWire' kiosks in 200 stations will help to recharge mobiles, pay bills

With help from Common Service Centre (CSC) kiosks by RailTel in 200 railway stations across India, passengers will soon be able to recharge their mobiles, pay electricity bills, fill up Aadhaar and Pan card forms and even file taxes. The kiosks have been named RailWire Saathi Kiosks' -- RailWire is the brand name of RailTel's retail broadband service.

According to a statement, "The services offered by CSC include booking of the traveling tickets (train, air, bus etc.), Aadhar Card, Voter Card, Mobile recharge, Electricity bill payment, Pan card, Income tax, Banking, insurance and many more.”

The scheme has been operationalised in partnership with CSC e-Governance Services India Limited' (CSC-SPV) and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology, RailTel said in a statement. The kiosks will be run by village level entrepreneurs (VLEs).

The RailWire Saathi CSC kiosks at the Varanasi City and Prayagraj City stations in Uttar Pradesh have been made operational on a pilot basis. Similar kiosks will be operationalised at around 200 railway stations, mostly in rural areas, in phases, the statement said.

Of these, 44 are in South Central Railway zone, 20 are in North Frontier Railway, 13 are in East Central Railway, 15 are in Western Railway, 25 are in Northern Railway, 12 are in West Central Railway, 13 are in East Coast Railway and 56 are in North Eastern Railway.

RailTel CMD Puneet Chawla said, "People in rural areas often find it difficult to avail various e-governance services or take advantage of digitalization due to lack of infrastructure/resources as well as lack of knowledge using the internet. These RailWire Saathi kiosks will bring these essential digital services at rural railway stations to support rural population."

RailTel has created one of the largest integrated wi-fi networks of the world by providing public wi-fi (under the brand name RailWire') at 6,090 stations; 5,000 of these are in rural areas. Utilizing this existing infrastructure at stations, RailTel, in partnership with CSC, plans to deliver broadband services to rural areas, it said.