IT giants to make Bhubaneswar Wi-Fi enabled city

IT bellwethers, Microsoft, IBM and Wipro are in a race for making Bhubaneswar a Wi-Fi enabled city.

"Microsoft, IBM, Wipro have given presentations on the proposed Bhubaneswar Wi-Fi project. The tenders for the Rs 100 crore project are expected to be floated soon," highly placed sources said.

For implementing the project, the state IT (Information Technology) department has engaged Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) as the consultant. STPI has already submitted the Terms of Reference (ToR), which is yet to be approved by the state government.

According to the ToR, STPI will charge 10% of the project cost as consultancy fee. The state government will pay Rs 1 crore in advance to STPI for preparation of the detail project report (DPR), which will be adjusted later from the consulting fee. However, the state IT department feels that the consultancy fee charged by STPI is on the higher side. The Director STPI (Bhubaneswar) has been told to propose a revised/reduced consultancy fee after consulting with DG (Director General), STPI.

After the preparation of DPR, STPI will present budgetary estimates for capital expenditure (CAPEX) and operational expenditure (OPEX). Though STPI wants both these expenses to be borne by the state government, the state government is willing to bear only the CAPEX amount.

"The state government will bear only the CAPEX amount, not OPEX amount and STPI as consultant will come out with a very sustainable revenue sharing model to meet the OPEX cost of the service provider to be selected,” read the minutes of a meeting held for finalization of ToR of STPI for making the capital city Wi-Fi enabled.

The state government is willing to give a moratorium period of one year to the service provider before sharing the revenue with the state. The state government is yet to take a final call on the STPI's proposal to charge 10% of the revenue to be shared by the implementing agency with state, in addition to its consultancy fee (10% of the total project cost). Similarly, STPI's demand to charge% on the capex for any capacity enhancement will be decided later before finalizing the ToR.