Mamata Banerjee is already big on Facebook and Twitter. But now she has decided to go WiFi and take all of Kolkata with her. On Thursday evening, the West Bengal chief minister put Kolkata's Park Street on the WiFi highway. All of Kolkata will have WiFi by April end, making the City of Joy the first WiFi enabled metro in India.
"I am proud to say Kolkata will be the first WiFi city in the world," Ms Banerjee said, before correcting herself and adding, "in the country. After the launch, Kolkata will also be a knowledge hub in the world."
The chief minister was also politically correct about the urban-rural digital divide. She announced that she had asked the chief secretary to explore how soon WiFi could be provided in the district towns too.
"We walk into restaurants and the first thing we ask is, is there free WiFi. Now we won't have to anymore," said Yashovardhan Dalmia, a college student. His friend said, "For our generation, that's the big thing, that it is going to be free."
For the moment though the mood is congratulatory. Ms Banerjee was the first to use the WiFi to tweet, "All my WiFi friends. I am tweeting using WiFi Kolkata. So proud to be first WiFi metro city in India. Congratulations to all."
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