The civic body is planning to create Wi-Fi hotspots in residential colonies, gardens, bus depots and colleges; authorities said services would start only by next year
After Shivaji Park got the city’s first free Wi-Fi services, the satellite city is set to follow suit. If the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation’s (NMMC) plans materialise, Navi Mumbai will have Wi-Fi services by the beginning of next year. Navi Mumbai is already home to several multinational IT companies and has a dedicated industrial corridor.
The plan to set up Wi-Fi hotspots in Navi Mumbai was originally presented in 2012-13, but it could not materialise due to technical issues. File pic
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But the civic body is now pushing for better Internet connectivity for its residential colonies. NMMC’s Additional City Engineer G V Rao told mid-day, “For introducing Wi-Fi services, we are considering public places such as gardens, bus depots, colleges and entertainment spots. However, we still haven’t issued tenders and the process will take at least three more months.”
This is not a new step, though; in 2012-13, the civic body had made a promise to make Navi Mumbai the state’s first Wi-Fi-enabled city. It had even allocated a budget of R2 crore, but the network never materialised due to technical issues, said an official.
Officials further said that the proposed services would only be limited to residential colonies, and not be extended to office and industrial spots. The actual service would be made available by next year and the civic body is now busy in finalising the locations, sources added.
Bangalore holds the honour for having the first city in India to introduce free Wi-Fi services this year, with hotspots at five different locations offering three hours of surfing and 50 MB of data download. However, Mysore was the first to be covered by a Wi-Fi network way back in 2004, but that service was based on a paid subscriber model.
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