Eye on BMC Polls: State races to create 1,500 WiFi hotspots in Mumbai by Jan

Mumbai civic polls are scheduled in the beginning of the next year; all major public places in the city are likely to turn into WiFi zones by mid-January, as per an ambitious plan drawn up by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led Maharashtra government.

 

The Maharashtra government has set a target of completing the first phase of the project by November 15 itself which includes WiFi hotspots at 500 locations. Overall, the city will have 1,500 WiFi hotspots. Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis recently sanctioned Rs. 194 crore for the first phase of the project.

 

According to the plan, one user per day will be able to use WiFi services free of cost for a maximum download limit of 100 megabytes (MB), or for 30 minutes a day. All e-governance mobile applications of the BMC, state government and Union government will be available all day for free, unlimited use at these hotspots. Web browsing for different purposes outside of government applications will cost after 100MB.

 

In addition, there will be a separate web portal and mobile app to register and authenticate details for WiFi access, and people will be able to switch seamlessly from one WiFi hotspot in the city to another using the same log-in details.

 

An official from the state’s department of information technology said, “The first phase of the project is likely to cover mainly prime tourist location and public recreation spots such as Gateway of India, Chowpatty, curve of the Queen’s necklace at Marine Drive promenade, Siddhivinayak Temple, Hanging Gardens and so on”.

 

The official added, “We are yet to finalise the exact locations of the 500 hotspots. Since we want to complete the installation fast, we are choosing spots where poles for surveillance cameras already exist as part of the Mumbai CCTV project. Among these, we will freeze on those locations where the service providers and equipment provider can easily start WiFi services without having to lay out additional infrastructure, which will be time consuming. But all the locations will be those where there is a large footfall and where people are known to come and spend some time”.

 

In the second phase of the project, the state government will also start with installing WiFi hotspots atop public buildings and government offices, the official said.