After the news of free WiFi in New Delhi, the latest buzz is hinting that there will be Free WiFi hotspots in Mumbai? Yes it is very much true as the State Government of Maharashtra is quite adamant in its fervor to revolutionize the capital into a smart city. Today, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said “The state government will provide as many as 1,200 Wi-Fi hotspots in the megapolis.”
This announcement was made on the debated issue of urban development which being formally discussed in the state Assembly Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis also elaborated the his previous statement saying “We are making Mumbai a Wi-Fi city by May 2017 with 1,200 hotspots at important places.”
Not all free Wifi hotspots in Mumbai will be installed together as this project will work in two phases. In the first phase, 500 out of 12, 00 hotspots will be made to operate by the month of November this year. Then afterwards, the second phase will begin to function.
Now this step is being seen as another noteworthy move after the previous planning and implementation of the CCTV project. We can say that both these projects are majorly being run to provide Mumbai an honorable tag of a ‘Smart City’.
Devendra Fadnavis very well knows the fact that making a high tech city won’t be sufficient as there are many other concerns popping up in the capital of Mumbai which have to be considered as well. We all know that Mumbai is famous for its flood like situations during the monsoon season and any measures taken by the Bombay Municipal Corporation keeps falling short in stopping the rain water to lodge on Mumbai roads. Addressing this important issue, Fadnavis said that “BMC ( Bombay Municipal Corporation) will treat all the sewage water before it flows into the sea. In fact, a project to generate electricity from the waste is being set up.”
Another rampant problem faced by Mumbaikars is of proper housing. The city keeps getting new populative additions but the area for construction of houses remains the same. On this issue, Fadnavis stated that, “The Union Government had sanctioned affordable housing projects under which 1, 01,701 houses would be constructed in the state. Centre had allocated Rs. 1,513 crore and the state Government Rs. 967 crore. We have taken a decision to allow cluster development (of residential buildings) in suburban areas too. We are waiting for impact assessment report.”
He also notified us that “Maharashtra has signed an MoU with HP for creating IT infrastructure in three Smart Cities, and will be investing Rs. 1,800 crore for this. Also Rs. 4,000 crore have been made available for the development works in 44 AMRUT cities”
On the matter of any corruptive practices being operated in management of waste or housing, Fadnavis said “Our government has not spared anyone found guilty of corruption and many corrective steps on waste management were taken after the Deonar (garbage) dumping ground fire incident took place in Mumbai.”
In the end we believe that planting up of free hotspots in Mumbai would be a good but not the greatest project of all. In order to make it a smart city, state government has to check and cater a lot of other important things.
