With no bids, Chandigarh’s Wi-Fi plans fail to take off again

It has only received one bid so far. As per the general finance rules (GFR), a minimum of three companies are required to apply for a project, of which work is allocated to one on merit. With department having received only one bid, UT director (information technology) Prince Dhawan said they have no option but to float another tender.

The department has been aiming to create hot spots enabling users to avail the Wi-Fi service in a radius of at least 100 metres with minimum bandwidth of 2Mbps on any Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, mobile phones and tablets. At Sukhna Lake, the department had planned to cover the area from its entry point till the regulatory end, while the complete area of RGCTP was to be made a Wi-Fi zone. The area between the Sector 17 Bus stand and the bank square was also to be developed as a free internet zone.

As per officials in the IT department, tough eligibility criteria is one of the main reasons for companies not showing interest in the project. As per the eligibility norms, the firm vying for the project must have an average turnover of not less than Rs 50 crore for the past three financial years. To qualify, a company must have implemented at least two similar solutions of setting up of Wi-Fi hotspots in thr last three years, of which at least one solution must be implemented for any government.

Failed attempts

THE IT department had first floated tenders for the project in 2014 and had selected five locations in the city for the Wi-Fi zones: Sector 17 Inter-State Bus Terminal (ISBT), Sector 43 ISBT, Sector 17 Plaza, Sector 22 market and Sukhna Lake. The project was scrapped after UT failed to attract bidders despite repeated attempts. The department then floated tenders in 2015 as part of efforts to transform Chandigarh into a WI-Fi city but only two companies responded, one less than the required for the project to get a green light.

In smart city proposal

In the revised smart city proposal, administration has proposed to provide Wi-Fi hotspots for free internet access for a limited time period in public spaces. Sector 17 has been picked for the area based development along with Sector 22, 53 and 43 in the revised smart city proposal. Currently free Wi-Fi is not available in public spaces.