Varanasi Has Free Wifi. But the Monkeys are a Big Problem.

As India launches an $18 billion or Rs 1.12 lakh crore plan to spread the information revolution to its provinces, some of the problems it faces are a holdover from the past - electricity shortages, badly planned, jam-packed cities, and monkeys.

The clash between the old world and the new is sharply in focus in the crowded 3,000-year-old holy city of Varanasi,  the constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Hundreds of macaque monkeys live in its temples and are fed and venerated by devotees. The monkeys feast on the fibre-optic cables that are strung along the banks of the Ganga.

" The monkeys, they destroy all the wires and eat all the wires," said communications engineer AP Srivastava. He said his team had to replace the riverside cables when the monkeys chewed them up less than two months after they were installed.

The city of over 20 lakh people is impossibly crowded; laying underground cable is out of the question.

Varanasi was the first of an eventual 2,500 locations singled out for street-level Wi-Fi. But a shortage of electricity means daily power cuts.

Boatman Sandeep Majhi makes a living ferrying pilgrims and bereaved families who scatter ashes in the river after performing cremations.

Free wi-fi was introduced in February. He recently purchased his first smartphone which he uses partly to promote his boat business to tourists on Facebook.

But he said the government needs to pay equal attention to the municipal services in a city which remains dependent on a 500-year-old, leaky drainage system for its sewage.

"Free Wi-Fi is a good facility for tourists but I think the officials should think about cleaning the ghats," said the 20-year-old, referring to the steps down to the river.

Mr Modi's government has pledged to lay 700,000 kms  of broadband cable to connect India's 250,000 village clusters within three years, build 100 new "Smart Cities" by 2020, and shift more public services like education and health to electronic platforms to improve access and accountability.

Bringing some order to  chaotic cities with technology is a daunting task.

India's urban population is forecast to swell by an additional 22 crore to 60 crore by 2031, potentially overwhelming already inadequate infrastructure.

Many of the new digital projects are simply aimed at improving existing civic amenities: time traffic information to help people better plan their journey, or systems that allow individuals to monitor water leakages or waste management and then inform local authorities.