Panchkula will have the Wi-Fi facility at five major places. The Yadavindra Gardens at Pinjore, the Mansa Devi temple, the Kali Mata temple in Kalka, Gurdwara Nada Sahib and the bus stand in Sector 5 here will all have a Wi-Fi hot spot installed by Haryana State Electronics Development Corporation Limited (HARTRON). The project is being undertaken in coordination with the BSNL “at nearly Rs 25 lakh for Panchkula”, which will be paid annually to the BSNL.
Currently, hardware installations have started at the five spots after the installation of optical fibre wherever these were not present earlier such as in the Nada Sahib area. After five locations in each district, more places will have such hot spots as the goal is to make the whole state Wi-Fi enabled. District information officers were consulted for choosing the five locations in their district.
Free Internet facility will be given to users for one hour or 50 MB downloads, whichever expires first. After that, the user will be automatically disconnected and the next user in the queue will get access to the Internet. Senior engineer of HARTRON Sharanjeet Singh said, “As soon as one comes in the range of a router and switches on the WiFi in his device, he will receive a link where he can register himself, receive a one-time password and log in.”
The Internet speed ranges from 512 KB per second to 2 MB per second and is decided according to the average number of people that visit it on a daily basis. Singh said the project in Panchkula got delayed because Panchkula fell in the Punjab circle of the BSNL whereas their agreement was with Haryana. However, they were almost ready now and would try to launch it within two weeks.
Currently, Kurukshetra is the only district in Haryana where the facility has been started. Panchkula or Ambala will be the second district and by the end of March, each district will have the facility.