Print

Comment

Email

Digg

Del.icio.us

Reddit

India's wireless subscriber base stands at around 400 mn, whereas the number of passengers who booked their railway tickets during July 1-10, 2009, was 211 mn. Overall, the number of train passengers is increasing despite poor services being offered to travelers. But there is a 1.02% drop in suburban bookings, showing that the middle class is looking for alternatives. One of the inconveniences is the lack of proper mobile charging points in trains and call drops during rail journeys.

In India, the premier class enjoys more facilities than their poor country cousins. For instance, each first class compartment, which occupies roughly seventy-two passengers, has thirty-six charging points (few of them may not be working), whereas in the sleeper class, there are only four charging points and one needs to stand in queue near stinking toilets to charge one's mobile. Four mobile charging points for seventy-two passengers (assuming that the compartment is not overcrowded) is, obviously, not enough.

If you are on a long journey, it is better you sleep late and charge your phone to avoid the long queue. Some handsets take more than an hour to charge. In that case, people will spend more time at the charging points. My experience in Mangala Express, while on a journey to enjoy monsoon holidays in Kerala, was not good. Most of my fellow passengers were marketing/sales professionals. Spoiling their holiday mood, they got calls frequently from their customers and bosses, and this forced them to charge their batteries regularly.

Call drops during train journeys are also rampant. The Indian Railway Ministry and operators must work together to ensure quality of services. If airlines are going to offer mobile connectivity in flights, why can't we enjoy seamless connectivity in trains? Roaming charges are paid for by subscribers to operators in order to enjoy quality services, and not to say “Poor network....I will call you back later....”

If the train runs slow, or halts at stations, charging also slows down. The Indian Railways will be setting up a 1,000 MW power plant, which will definitely reduce the railway's dependence on power supply from other utilities. Hope that passengers can get adequate power for charging their handsets. Announcement of setting up a committee under the chairmanship of Sam Pitroda to commercialize railway's optic fiber network will help the railways.

Let the Railway Minister start talking about seamless connectivity without any power breaks in trains. We should not wait for the next Railway Budget to take up the issue. We need services that can make the developed world envy us.

Baburajan K
baburajank@cybermedia.co.in