Quick Recharge! Pay electricity bills, fill Aadhaar, PAN card applications and more at RailWire kiosks soon

Rail passengers will soon be able to recharge their phones, pay electricity bills, fill Aadhaar and PAN card applications and even file taxes using the Common Service Center (CSC) kiosks, which are to be set up by RailTel in 200 railway stations across India, as per PTI report.

The initiative was launched in collaboration with the CSC e-Governance Services India Limited (CSC-SPV) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, according to a statement from RailTel. Village entrepreneurs will operate the kiosks (VLEs).

"The services offered by CSC include booking of the travelling tickets (train, air, bus, etc.), Aadhar Card, Voter Card, Mobile recharge, Electricity bill payment, Pan card, Income tax, Banking, insurance and many more," the statement said according to PTI.

The kiosks have been named 'RailWire Saathi Kiosks' -- RailWire is the brand name of RailTel's retail broadband service.

To begin with, the RailWire Saathi CSC kiosks at the Varanasi City and Prayagraj City stations in Uttar Pradesh have been made operational on a pilot basis. Similar kiosks will be operationalised at around 200 railway stations, mostly in rural areas, in phases, the statement said as per PTI mentioned.

Of these, 44 are in South Central Railway zone, 20 are in North Frontier Railway, 13 are in East Central Railway, 15 are in Western Railway, 25 are in Northern Railway, 12 are in West Central Railway, 13 are in East Coast Railway and 56 are in North Eastern Railway.

"People in rural areas often find it difficult to avail various e-governance service or take advantage of digitalization due to lack of infrastructure/resources as well as lack of knowledge using internet. These RailWire Saathi kiosks will bring these essential digital services at rural railway stations to support rural population," said RailTel CMD Puneet Chawla.

RailTel has built one of the world's largest integrated wi-fi networks, with public wi-fi (under the brand name 'RailWire') available at 6,090 stations, 5,000 of which are in rural regions. RailTel, in collaboration with CSC, wants to bring internet services to rural regions using the existing infrastructure at stations, according to the company.