Free Wi-Fi internet at Chandigarh railway station is being stolen!

It’s free, it has great speed, and it needs no effort to get a password. For internet junkies, the Wi-Fi at the Chandigarh railway station is God’s gift, but the authorities are not amused.

Youngsters from nearby areas, such as Daria village and the slum Railway Colony, flock to the station to download videos and songs, get the latest apps, and surf to their heart’s content. But the situation has reached a point that the station superintendent TP Singh has written to the divisional railways manager against outsiders, or non-passengers, to curb this.

That’s easier said than done. As it works, anyone can get Wi-Fi access password without entering a passenger name record or PNR. RailTel, a public sector undertaking (PSU), is providing the facility, under which you get up to 40mbps speed for one hour, and then only up to 1mbps.

RailTel senior manager Kailash Rai acknowledged having received complaints from the superintendent about “misuse”, but added, “We cannot put a password linked with PNR as the security of passengers may get leaked since the Wi-Fi is a commercial link. The DRM office should write to RailTel to secure the Wi-Fi; only then can we go ahead with anything like that.”