AAP govt's outcome budget puts September 2020 deadline for free wi-fi project

The current Aam Aadmi Party government will not be able to fulfil the promise of providing free wi-fi facility to Delhiites as the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation's Outcome Budget has set September 2020 deadline for commissioning of the service across the city.

Assembly elections in Delhi are expected to be held later this year or early next year.

According to the Outcome Budget, released by Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Friday, tender for the project will be awarded by December 31, 2019.

According to the Outcome Budget for the Public Works Department, which is responsible for executing the project in the city, the expected date for issue of request for proposals (RFP) is September 30, 2019, which was earlier June 30, 2018.

The PWD said in the outcome budgetary document that the expected date for commissioning of wi-fi hotspots at pilot stage has been set for March 31, 2020.

"The expected date for commissioning of Wi-Fi hotspots at all places of Delhi is September 30, 2020," it stated.

It implies that the free wi-fi facility, a major poll plank of the Aam Aadmi Party in the 2015 Assembly elections, cannot be rolled out in the city during the current regime of Arvind Kejriwal.

In February last year, Kejriwal had said his government would start providing free wi-fi internet service "soon".

In 2016, the AAP government had announced that more than 500 locations across East Delhi would be made high-speed wi-fi zones by the end of that year, allowing access to free Internet till a pre-determined limit daily, but it could not be implemented.