Free Wi-Fi scheme fails to deliver in Karnal
Parveen Arora
Tribune News Service
Karnal, January 5
The initiative of the Karnal Municipal Corporation (KMC) of developing 25 Wi-Fi zones in various parks for offering free Internet access to people has failed to deliver. Neither residents are easily accessing password nor getting full speed in most of the parks.
After facing such complaints from different sections of people, the KMC has now planned to scrap the tender. It is also going to start new process for Wi-Fi zones under the Smart City project.
“We have reviewed the project and it has become a costly affair for the KMC. It is being extended and now we have decided to scrap it. We will start fresh process under the Smart City project,” said Rajiv Mehta, Commissioner, KMC.
The information gathered by The Tribune revealed that the KMC allotted work of developing 25 Wi-Fi zones in Atal Park, Karan Park, Karan Taal, Swami Vivekanand Park, Park Avenue, Sector-13, Shaymalsen Park, Musical Fountain on Mughal Canal, Jernaily Colony park, Saint Kabir Park, Kalpana Chawla Park, Parnami Park, Sant Kashmira Singh Park, parks in ward-14, 1 and others, to SAT International Private Ltd with the cost of Rs 6.5 lakh per month in April 2017.
At that time it was claimed that a data of 100 MB per day per person would be extended. Besides, it was said every Wi-Fi hotspot would have a range of 100 meters.
When The Tribune team checked the smart initiative, it found that most of the people were not able to access the password, which is OTP based. Moreover, they were complaining about poor range in most of the parks.
“I tried to access the Wi-Fi in Karan Park, but could not get password. I did not even get the OTP. This facility has turned to be a white elephant and a burden on the pocket of tax payers here,” said Amneet Singh, a resident.
Another resident Nikhil Kumar said he used Wi-Fi at Swami Vivekanand Park, but did not get full speed even during less peak hours when there were few people.
However, Manoj Kumar, Director, SAT International Pvt Ltd, refuted the allegations and said the project was running smoothly in all the parks. He said the password was OTP based, which people could easily access. He claimed that they had a team of technicians, who immediately resolved any issues being faced by people.
