Hazratganj to turn into a free WiFi zone from June

LUCKNOW: Hazratganj is all set to get a facelift, as the much-awaited Ganjing Carnival kicks off tomorrow. However, adding to the delight of Lucknowites will be a free WiFi zone in the same locality, June onwards. In a meeting held in April between the District Administration, Nagar Nigam and Reliance Jio Infocomm, a proposal was put forward by the company to offer free WiFi service to visitors.A recce was conducted by members of the District Administration along with company officials last month, who suggested that poles be erected at a distance of 100 metres from each other and be linked by optical fibre network to make the area WiFi enabled.
"This is a part of the District Administration's initiative to upgrade the quality of services available to Lucknowites. Interim clearance was granted to the company on May 21 to start the work and put the infrastructure in place, which as per them, will take a month. So hopefully, we can expect round-the-clock the WiFi service to start from June 20," says Vinod Kumar, Additional City Magistrate, First, Lucknow. He adds, "The official inauguration of 4G services will happen in September, after which the WiFi facility would be available free of cost to each visitor for 20 minutes per day, after which it would be chargeable. However, access to government sites will be free of cost round the clock."
The first phase involves extending the service to just the stretch from Hazratganj crossing till Parivartan Chowk. "A proposal is pending to extend the corridor till the Raj Bhawan. In the second phase, we might consider making the stretch between Burlington crossing to Sikander Bagh roundabout a WiFi zone as well," adds Kumar.
In March this year, free WiFi facility was started at the Lucknow Junction railway station, after which Charbagh railway station also followed suit. The Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation also conducted trial runs at the Charbagh and Qaiserbagh bus stations and are soon going to launch free WiFi service for the first 30 minutes at 25 bus stations across the state.