Railways blocks porn websites to prevent misuse of free Wi-Fi service at Patna Railway Station

Patna: Days after it came to fore that the free Wi-Fi service at the Patna Railway Station was mainly used to watch porn by the users, the Railways have now blocked viewing of the pornographic content.

A Times of India report said on Wednesday that pornographic websites were blocked by the Railways on Monday for the free Wi-Fi users at the Patna Railway Station.

It was done in view of the findings of a recent survey conducted by RailTel.

The RailTel survey claimed that the Patna Junction had topped the list of stations with maximum internet searches for porn sites.

However, RailTel, a public sector undertaking, had later denied that the free Wi-Fi services at the Patna railway station was used mostly to view porn.

"The Wi-Fi provided at stations is the platform to millions of users to connect to internet," a RailTel spokesperson was quoted as saying by IANS.

"RailTel, being an Internet Service Provider, does not keep watch over the web sites being browsed by the users. The guidelines being issued by DoT in this regard from time to time are strictly complied with by RailTel," the spokesperson added.

East Central Railway (ECR) CPRO Arvind Rajak, however, said that RailTel has started the process of blocking all sleazy sites at Patna Junction, which has free Wi-Fi facility.

He said the very purpose of providing free Wi-Fi services at all major stations falling under the ECR jurisdiction is to ensure that passengers could know the exact position and movement of trains running in the zone.

"Unfortunately, the facility was being used for some 'other' purposes," he was quoted as saying.

In view of the RailTel survey, Patna Junction had gained notoriety for maximum searches of porn sites, prompting the Indian Railways to take preventive measures.

Wi-Fi facility was introduced at Patna Junction this year. RailTel is providing 1 GB free Wi -Fi service to each visitor to Patna Junction, sources said adding that railways has decided to increase it up to 10 GB due to slow speed of the internet service.

The service has been provided under `Railwire`, the retail broadband distribution model of RailTel.