The ambitious 18km free public Wi-fi network in the city, arguably the longest stretch in the world, has hit a road block because of lackadaisical attitude of officials in Bihar State Electronic Development Corporation Limited (Beltron).

The work on setting up the Wi-fi network, including installation of routers and laying optical fibre cables, has been completed over two months ago but Beltron has not taken over the project. Consequently, fresh contract for annual maintenance work has not been issued.

A total of 80 access points for free Wi-fi zone were created between National Institute of Technology, Patna, on Ashok Rajpath and Saguna Mor on the western end of Bailey Road between February and June this year.

On Tuesday, The Telegraph checked the Wi-fi connectivity status between Ashiana Mor and Income Tax roundabout, only to find out that it has completely fallen flat. At most places, the connection was not available right under the access points even. At places where the network was available, the device could not register with the Wi-fi network due to poor network strength.

Sources in Calcutta-based Benchmark Infotech Pvt. Ltd, the firm which has been awarded the contract for the city Wi-fi project, claimed that they have stopped looking after the control room.

“As per the terms and conditions of the contract awarded to us, Beltron was supposed to verify the work done by us after its completion and take over the project. However, it has not been done even though we had completed most of the work by August. As the takeover has not been done, thus we have not been given our full payment as well,” said a senior executive at Benchmark Infotech.

Regarding maintenance of the network, the executive added: “The annual maintenance contract can be initiated only after Beltron takes over the project. We are no longer looking after the access gears as well as the control room as we have not been given any contract for the same. It is now the property of Beltron.”

Science and technology minister Shahid Ali Khan said he would get the issue resolved at the earliest.

Sources also claimed that there is an immediate need for increasing the bandwidth of the Wi-fi network. “As of now, the bandwidth under the city Wi-fi project is 20MBPS, which means that only around 100 people connect to it simultaneously. However, around 2,000-3,000 people connect to the network at any given time these days. For this, the bandwidth should be increased to 200MBPS,” said the Benchmark Infotech executive.