Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Following the Prime Minister’s vision of a smart city for Islamabad, the civic body is preparing to launch free WiFi hotspots in the city.

The chief commissioner Islamabad has also given a go ahead to a proposal made by the Capital Development Authority (CDA) for the provision for free WiFi networks at four different public places.

The project is a brain child of incumbent Member Administration CDA, Muhammad Yasir Perzada, who decided to launch the free internet facility in the capital following the Prime Minister’s vision of a smart city for Islamabad.

“A private firm ‘Mavan Consulting’ would provide WiFi hotspots and maintain the services free of cost for the first four months while the civic body will assist them in this process by giving them suitable spaces for advertisement”, an official told Daily Times.

“The CDA will not have to pay anything for this pilot phase, in which not only the citizens will be offered free internet but the specific data will also be collected to monitor the behaviour of users to make need-based changes before the proper launch of this project”, he added.

According to available information, the citizens would be able to connect internet free of cost while the project is aimed to promote education through the use of latest technology whereas some special measures would also be taken to curb unethical and immoral browsing.

A source inside the civic body briefed further that a summary to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the facility provider was prepared by the Information Technology Directorate of the CDA, but the Legal Adviser of the civic body pointed out some impediments mostly about security concerns linked with the project.

“To avoid any issue in the implementation of this project, the civic body sought an approval from the ICT administration, which was granted by the Chief Commissioner Islamabad in the recent week”, sources in the administration confirmed.

When contacted the spokesperson CDA. Mazhar Hussain. said: “We are exploring and working on multiple projects to facilitate the masses and we believe in serving citizens through such projects as the contemporary world is based on information technology.”

A similar facility is already being provided by Punjab Information Technology Board in three cities of the province including Lahore, Multan and Rawalpindi. The scheme has been named Khadim-e-Punjab Metro WiFi Network Programme.