The railway ministry has shelved the plan to roll out free Wi-fi service on premium trains, including Rajdhani and Shatabdi.

Reason - a survey conducted by Railtel Corporation of India Limited, a Miniratna public sector undertaking, has revealed that Patna tops the list of 23 stations for maximum use of internet searches for porn sites.

After Patna, Jaipur Junction was the second to use the internet search, followed by Bangalore and New Delhi.

On Sunday, a railway board official, said: "Gross misuse of internet facility on railway stations has put the ministry in an awkward situation as far as going ahead with the plans of providing free internet service on premium trains is concerned. Not only, the misuse of internet facility is causing revenue loss to the railways. If a cellphone user watches porn on running trains, it will prove to be quite discomforting for the fellow passengers as a wide section of people travel by trains, including women and children."

The official said that the ministry is also contemplating to levy charges for the Wi-fi services currently provided free of cost.

The plan to scrap the free Wi-fi service comes as a jolt as Union railway minister Suresh Prabhu had earlier said the government plans to introduce the free service at around 400 railway stations in the country in the next three years in collaboration with Google. In September 2015, the railways announced its partnership with Google to provide free Wi-fi services at railway stations. Mumbai Central was the first railway station in the country to enjoy free Wi-fi facility.

Patna was the first railway station in Bihar to get free Wi-fi facility. It was inaugurated in May this year by rail minister Prabhu. The railways had also decided to roll out internet facility on 100 premium trains criss-crossing the country. The pilot project was started on the New Delhi-Howrah Rajdhani Express in 2013.

The rail board official further said that there have been cases where people, mostly youths buy platform tickets just to use the free Wi-fi service at platforms. "They buy a platform ticket worth Rs 10 and use the services for free for hours. What we get to see is that mostly they download movies, songs, apps, videos or search pornographic websites. This has left the ministry in a state of perplexity," he said.