Digital Delhi: 1,000 WiFi hotpsots to come up by Feb 2016; 5000 DTC buses to get Internet

By NewsGram Staff Writer

In good stead with its plans to make the national capital a Wi-fi connected zone, the Aam Aadmi Party government on Monday said that it would provide 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots by February next year across the national capital.

To make it more extensive, the government also plans to provide internet connectivity in 5,000 buses of Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) and also lay a common fibre infrastructure in the city.

An official of the IT department said, " We envision the rollout of 1,000 Wi-Fi hotspots around the time of completion of first year of AAP Delhi government early next year with further scaling of coverage every year.

"Technical and feasibility study on these issues is being conducted by the Wi-Fi Task Force of Delhi Dialogue Commission and the IT department of Delhi government," the official said.

The Delhi government in association with the Delhi Dialogue Commission's Wi-Fi Task Force also held consultation with various telecom operators, system integrators, original equipment manufacturers (OEMs), and hardware and software providers.

The consultation was chaired by Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, DDA vice-chairman Ashish Khetan, parliamentary secretary Adarsh Shastri and chief secretary K.K. Sharma.

At the end of this three-day consultation and over 40 one-to-one discussions at the DDA's Wi-Fi task force, the expert panel has come up with preliminary expert recommendations which will be followed by a detailed paper by June-end.

The government in its statement said that the state government wanted to give every citizen the right to Internet.

"Universal access to Internet is transformative idea that can empower citizens and provide them a level playing field, irrespective of economic status, educational qualifications, gender, race or religion," the government said.

"Wi-Fi will be the first phase of making Delhi a digital city and will bridge the digital divide by creating an information superhighway, which will consist of CCTV, geotagging, m-governance, e-governance and other citizen services being built on top of Wi-Fi as a service," parliamentary secretary Shastri said in New Delhi.