Hardly anything comes for free these days - not even Wi-fi network.

A decision has been taken to charge user fee at Patna Junction from railway passengers for Wi-fi, which would be rolled out in another three months.

Earlier, the railways decided to offer the popular technological service at the busy A1-category station for free. However, as the project would be executed on the public-private partnership (PPP) mode, the railways have come out with the idea to charge the passengers for internet use.

The Railway board asked RailTel Corporation of India to handle this project to enable Net connectivity at all A1-category stations through Wi-fi. RailTel is the telecom infrastructure provider of Indian Railways.

Requesting anonymity, a senior official of the Danapur signal and telecom department said: 'As the project would be implemented on PPP mode, it becomes important to maintain the service properly and it can only be done through proper care by deputing a dedicated team after the service. The railways have decided to charge some amount for the service.'

Sharing the rates of Wi-fi service at Patna Junction, the official added: 'It would not be expensive. For half-an-hour, one has to pay Rs 25 and for one hour Rs 40 would be charged. These two options would come in scratch cards and made available at Wi-fi centre at the station. However, the rates many change when the project would finally be executed. It would cover all 10 platforms.'

This ambitious project was about to start from the first week of November but it has got delayed now and would take another three months. Patna Junction is one of the most crowded stations of East Central Railway (ECR) that receives footfall of around 1.75 lakh every day with 350 pairs of trains passing through it.

About the delay, ECR chief public relations officer Arvind Kumar Rajak said: 'After studying the experience of Wi-fi system at Bangalore City, RailTel will issue a detailed policy guidelines and the system would be proliferated at all A1-category stations.'

On October 28, Bangalore City became the first railway station in the country to have Wi-fi connectivity. After Bangalore, the next railway station to become Wi-fi connected is New Delhi. Under ECR, A1-category stations Dhanbad, Mughalsarai, Gaya, Muzaffarpur and Darbhanga would also enabled with Wi-fi.'