eGovWatch: Wi-Fi service starts in Khan Market, Connaught Place to follow soon

The ambitious Wi-Fi project of the New Delhi Municipal Council has taken off with Khan Market becoming the first area where visitors can avail the facility and Connaught Place to follow soon.

“The Wi-Fi facility in Khan Market started a few days ago. It is running successfully,” O P Mishra, who is handling the project, said.

The visitors can avail the facility by filling in details such as e-mail ID and mobile number. After that, a one-time password (OTP) will be received to connect to the Internet.

After the free usage time is exhausted, the user will have to do a recharge using scratch cards which will be available at various shops in the area.

Though the project is running successfully in Khan Market, the civic agency is facing some problems regarding it in Connaught Place.

“CP being a large area, we cannot connect the service from pole to pole, as we have done in Khan Market. Also, we decided to shift the cables and transmission wires inside the 1.2 km long utility tunnel in CP, so that the display of the market doesn’t look ugly,” Mishra said.

However, service providers Tata Docomo and Vodafone, who have partnered with NDMC to provide the facility, have assured the civic agency that the Wi-Fi facility will start in Connaught Place by the end of this month.

Currently, the project is running in N-Block of Connaught Place as a trial run, NDMC officials said.

The project was supposed to be launched in July, but got delayed due to various technical and logistical issues.

The delay in the project is also attributed to concerns raised by some security agencies who have their offices in Connaught Place, NDMC officials said.

They have raised objections that the transmission lines used for Wi-Fi services can interfere with their networks, they said.
However, the civic agency has assured that the service providers have got the necessary security clearances from the Department of Telecom for the project.

“Five layers of security clearances have been passed by Vodafone and Tata. Transperency is a pre-requisite and the project can be physically monitored by the DoT,” Mishra said.