East Delhi to get 1000 Hotspot Zones, free wi-fi by December 2016

The Delhi government has announced that over 500 locations across East Delhi will be converted into high-speed wi-fi zones by the end of 2016.

The scheme will reportedly allow users to access free internet till a pre-determined daily limit.

Providing free wi-fi across the national capital was one of the key poll promises of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Ashish Khetan, vice-chairman of Dialogue and Development Commission (DDC) of Delhi, which is an advisory body to the government, did not spell out the limit but said that it would be consistent with the average daily usage of an individual as defined by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

The IT department will be the nodal agency in charge of implementing the project for which tenders for which will be floated soon, Khetan said.

The government has also decided to lay down a common fibre-optic network across the city to make it possible for Delhiites to access the web in "gigabit speed", Khetan said.

He said that 1,000 hotspot zones (wi-fi-enabled) in around 521 pre-identified locations in the trans-Yamuna region will cater to around 1,20,000 people at any given moment.

"The Delhi government has prepared the wi-fi project, which is set to be the largest such project in the world. These 571 pre-identified locations will have 1,000 hotspot zones. Each hotspot zone will have three access points and will cater to around 120 people at a time," Khetan said.

He also said that 3,000 more access points will be added if needed.

"The tender will have details of free data usage limit. But at this point, I can say that the benchmark would be average data usage by an individual per day as defined by TRAI," Khetan said.

He said the Public Works Department is the nodal agency for the optic-fibre project, which he said was an essential pre-requisite for a smart city. Work has started in this regard, he added.

--With PTI inputs