"In the new millenium, Ramdin Chacha would like his rural folks to become netizens. Internet will be the ideal millenium gift. It needs a concerted effort and some smart ideas".

Indian Railways---traversing about 63,000 Km of the country from Kashmir to Kanyakumari and from Tinsukia to Dwaraka---has an access to a major part of this HAVE-NOTs of the population. The Railways are serving 15 million passengers daily from approximately 7,300 railway stations, out of which 7,000 are in rural areas and serve more than 70,000 villages as a conservative estimate.

For their own operational requirement Railways have their own means of communication to each Railway station irrespective of its geographical location and terrain conditions. Of late, the Railways have started to make use of the digital communication technology based on optical fibre system because of its inherent advantages and reduced cost in comparison to the conventional technology. In some sections, Railways are also making use of wireless based digital transmission technology. Already Indian Railways have 2,500 Km of its route equipped with optical fibre communication system. The work is under progress in another 5,000 Km by various agencies of Railways. In addition, Railways have plans to cover further 20,000 route Km by optical fibre system in the next three years. Also about 13,000 Km of Railway communication is on copper cable which can also be upgraded for digital transmission by using ADSL/HDSL i.e. xDSL technology. The salient feature of Railway’s telecom network in rural areas is that it provides for a tapping at every railway station without any extra infrastructural cost. Also the telecom infrastructure of Railways is specially ruggedised to face the hostile rural environment and is having a very high degree of availability even in remote areas.

IRCON INTERNATIONAL---a ‘Mini Ratna’ ISO 9002 PSU under Ministry of Railways---is building fibre-optic link between Delhi and Mumbai under Build-Own-Operate-Lease (B.O.O.L) Scheme. This project will cover 1,500 Km between Delhi and Mumbai via Jaipur, Ajmer, Ahmedabad and will provide communication to 275 railway stations. Under this project, a 24 fibre optical fibre cable is being laid, out of which 2 pairs of fibre will be terminated at every station. On one pair of fibre a 30 channel (2 Mbps system) will be installed to meet the operational requirement of Railways. In addition each major Railway station will be provided with latest SDH system (equipped for 16 x 2 Mbps tributaries) for the administrative trunk requirements of Railways. Out of 30 channels being dropped at each Railway stations one or two channels can be used to provide connectivity to a PCO or ‘Internet café’ at Railway station which can be connected to a telephone exchange or an ISP at the nearest township, at the only additional cost of a PCO telephone instrument (in case of a PCO) or an inexpensive Internet hub---like ‘H-Connect’ developed by IIT Chennai---along with an Internet-ready PC in case of wayside Internet café.

In a village, a great deal of activities is centred around the post office, school or the railway station. It is easiest and probably one of most economical ways to provide communication access at the railway station such as the cost to provide an access is only incremental. As the need for information access is exploding, the provision of a basic telephone is not enough. In this information era---because of applications like distance learning, telemedicine and just the Internet itself---the access to Internet is important for rural areas. It is more economical and reliable way to communicate than a rural telephone. Each railway station ---especially touching rural areas---having a digital connectivity for Railways’ communication needs, can be provided with an Internet Kiosk or the ‘R@il Internet Café. To make Chacha’s folks netizens…the millenium gift. Using low cost indigenous technical solutions the infrastructure cost of the Rail Internet café will be low. Also the space and power are easily available with the Railways.

This low cost solution for providing Internet access to the rural masses can help in the application of telecom for the development of rural India. As Indian Railways are having their own Intranet i.e. RAILNET, it can also be used to provide the access to Internet.