7 Trains from (SCL)SILCHAR to (LMG)LUMDING JN

Northeast Frontier Railway celebrated the 73^rd Independence Day of the Nation in befitting manner. The central programme was held at the Maligaon Railway HQ complex, where Shri Sanjive Roy, General Manager of N.F. Railway unfurled the National Flag in presence of a huge gathering of railway officials and their family members. The General Manager also inspected an impressive Guard of Honour given to him by RPF contingents and Bharat Scouts & Guides. The Independence Day was also celebrated in all the five Divisions of N.F. Railway viz. Tinsukia, Lumding, Rangiya, Alipurduar and Katihar, where the Divisional Railway Manager unfurled the National Flag in presence of Divisional railway officials and their family members.

In his speech General Manager highlighted the need for having proper safety during train running. He mentioned that for improvement of safety, while all un-manned LC gates have been already eliminated, moreover normal position of 558 LC gates have been converted to “ Open to Road Traffic” position from “Closed to Road traffic” position for convenience of road vehicle users.

The General Manager stated that, while development of amenities at Guwahati station have been largely praised by rail users, passenger amenities at Rangiya and Tinsukia stations have also been upgraded for providing better comfort and convenience, while work is in progress at Siliguri Jn and Alipurduar Jn is also in progress. For convenience of senior citizens, 6 lifts and 6 escalators have been provided at different stations. Work is in progress for installation of another 33 lifts and 25 escalators. 361 toilets for the convenience of Divyangjans have also been provided at different stations. While 81 stations of NFR are now having free WiFi facilities the service is to be extended to all crossing stations by end of this year. o­nboard WiFi based entertainment system has been provided in all Rajdhani Express, o­ne Shatabdi Express and o­ne Humsafar Express train.

As part of the Green initiatives of the zone, Guwahati and Katihar stations obtained ISO certification by strictly adhering to various guidelines of the National Green Tribunal. The solar power generating capacity of NFR has also increased to 2388 kWp.

On the occasion the General Manager also awarded 9 railwaymen for their exemplary service extended during the year.

Later the General Manager alongwith members of N.F. Railway Womens Welfare Organization (NFRWWO) distributed fruits amongst the admitted patients of the N.F. Railway Central Hospital, Maligaon.

As a giant leap towards Digital India, Indian Railways is providing fast & free Wi-Fi to passengers at Railway stations.

Rail Wire Wi-Fi at Railways stations is gaining popularity and is a preferred choice of the Rail users while at railway stations.

High speed Wi-Fi services at Railway stations have earlier been provided through collaboration of RailTel and Google in first phase. RailTel provided high speed end to end network connectivity o­n Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) & Google provided Radio access network equipment along with technology support.

On N. F. Railway, high speed Wi-Fi has been provided at 68 stations (22 stations in Katihar Division, 9 stations in Alipurduar Division, 10 stations in Rangiya Division, 17 stationsin Lumding Division and 10 stations Tinsukia Division) in the first phase from 2016-17 to 2017-18. In the next phase, it is targeted to extend Wi-Fi service to another 295 stations within this year which will enable every station of NFR (except halt stations) to have Wi-Fi hotspots.

N. F. Railway provides services in nine states (07 North-eastern states and 02 Eastern India states namely Bihar & West Bengal). All A1, A, B, D class stations within N. F. Railway’s jurisdiction were covered with Wi-Fi facility in phase - 1. Majority of district headquarters that have railway stations have now been provided with Wi-Fi network. This year 295 stations o­n NFR (54 stations of Katihar Division, 55 stations of Alipurduar Division, 64 stations of Rangiya Division, 87 stations of Lumding Division and 35 stations of Tinsukia Division) will be provided with Wi-Fi under Corporate Social Responsibility Scheme by M/s Tata Trust. Architecture for commissioning the access points is being executed by RailTel and Wi-Fi will be installed and operational shortly.

Free Wi-Fi services to passengers are being provided under ‘RailWire’ brand - the retail Broadband initiative of RailTel. Designed to offer users the best Internet experience, Wi-Fi will be available to any user who has a Smartphone with working mobile connection for KYC considerations. To use the Wi-Fi the user has to switch o­n the Wi-Fi mode in the Smartphone and select the RailWire Wi-Fi network. After the RailWire homepage network automatically appears o­n the Smartphone, the user has to enter his or her mobile number o­n this homepage. The user will get o­ne-time password (OTP) in form of SMS in the message box which has to be entered in the home page of RailWire. After entering OTP Users will be able to access high speed internet & can start internet browsing.

It is estimated that 20,000 users in Railway Premises everyday are first time users of the internet.