The Yogi Adityanath government has planned a gift for the people, especially the youth, by ensuring availability of free WiFi facility at 217 public places across 75 district headquarters, municipal councils and 17 municipal corporations of the state from August 15 onwards.
The chief minister has directed officials of the Urban Development department to make necessary arrangements in this regard.
Divisional commissioners, district magistrates and municipal commissioners have been told to identify hotspots at major public places, including city bus stands, railway stations, tehsils, courts, block offices, registrar offices and main markets in order to provide free WiFi facility.
"After assuming office in Uttar Pradesh, the Yogi Adityanath government provided free WiFi facility at major places in several cities of the state, including Lucknow. Hotspots were made available in Hazratganj area of Lucknow to enable people within a range of 50 metres from the hotspot to avail free WiFi. Now, the chief minister has decided to provide free WiFi at major public places of cities across the state. The government feels that WiFi is one of the necessities these days and free WiFi will benefit thousands of people in every city," a top government official said.
According to a plan prepared by the Urban Development department, free WiFi will be available at two places in big cities (municipal corporations) and at one place in towns. The state government will provide the free WiFi facility in Lucknow, Kanpur Nagar, Agra, Aligarh, Varanasi, Prayagraj, Jhansi, Bareilly, Saharanpur, Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Ayodhya, Meerut, Shahjahanpur, Ghaziabad, Mathura-Vrindavan and Firozabad municipal corporations as well as in municipal councils.
The Urban Development department will tie up with internet service providers to provide free WiFi facility for people across the state with special focus on proper internet speed.
“Municipal commissioners and executive officers have been told that the Smart City Project or urban bodies will bear the cost of the WiFi installation and the urban bodies have been asked to regularly provide information about the status of installations,” the official said.
Also, internet service providers that are engaged in the installation of WiFi networks will also have to look after its maintenance to ensure that it works properly. The speed of the WiFi will be decided by the local authorities,” the official informed.