AAP govt's free Wi-Fi project still stuck

AAP government's ambitious project to provide free Wi-Fi services to Delhi residents continues to remain stuck as its Public Works Department has expressed inability to implement the scheme, citing a lack of expertise.

Earlier this month, the project-in-charge wrote to the PWD engineer-in-chief in this connection.

A government official said that the Information Technology department of the Delhi government should execute the project as it has the expertise required to implement it.

In the 2018-19 Budget, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia allocated Rs 100 crore to provide free Wi-Fi facility and handed over the project to the PWD from the IT department.

"We have conveyed to the higher authorities in the PWD that IT department should execute this project as we lack expertise in this field," an official of the PWD said.

Providing free Wi-Fi across the national capital was one of the key poll promises of the Aam Aadmi Party. However, more than three years after it came to power, the AAP is yet to realise the promise.

In February this year, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said the government was working on three-four models for providing free Wi-Fi and would soon take a decision.