Phone booths go off Indian Railways essential emenity list, charging points find place; all details here

With the massive rise in smartphone usage, the traditional public telephone booths are seeing no use at the Indian Railways stations, which is why, now  the national transporter has decided to install universal charging points at various stations across India. The current situation in India, is that each coming day we see new launches of smartphone which are claimed to better than before, as definitely taken the attention of citizens. Almost everybody has a smartphone both in rural and urban areas, which the mobile connection more ubiquitous.

Therefore, these telephone booths have almost no user, and the railway has now added universal charging points to the 'minimum essential amenity' list.   The minimum essential amenity' list has been provided to each category of stations on the basis of projected traffic or earnings, PTI reported citing officials. When mobile pones were not available, these telephone booths were essential medium of communication, as they are in inception since the late 19th century. 

However, now most of these booths have either shut down or the premises are being used to sell other goods. When there were no mobile phone connectivity, these booths were used to call family and friends for informing about  their arrival and departure. In railway stations across India, there are  still nearly 20,000 such booths.  All 'A' class non-suburban stations should have two such booths with STD/ ISD/ Local call/FAX/ Internet facility at each platform, the report said.

According the policy, there should be telephone booth at 'B', 'C' and D class stations. Officials said universal charging points are more essential then this booths as almost everyone nowadays use mobile phone.