Bhubaneswar, July 22: The authorities, which are yet to decide a date for the launch of the much-awaited light-and-sound show at Dhauli peace pagoda, today announced the modalities for the show.

There will be two shows of 35 minutes each in the evening - which 200 people can watch at a time. A ticket would cost Rs 25, but students will have to cough up Rs 10. The shows will be held six days a week with Monday being an off day.

The decisions were taken at a co-ordination meeting held here today under the chairmanship of tourism and culture minister Ashok Chandra Panda.

The minister later told reporters that the show would be open to public shortly but refused to set a date.

Tourism director Anil Kumar Samal said: "The tourism department has signed a five-year contract with TricolorIndia Schauspiel Private Limited, which will run the show with its experts. The company is a subsidiary of UK-based Projection Studio, a century-old organisation with many spectacular light-and-sound shows and other events with special effects to its credit. The dome of the pagoda would act as a screen for the show and there will be plastic chairs for the audience."

Samal said the sitting arrangements would be temporary as such permanent facility would change the settings on the basement level of the pagoda built with Indo-Japanese collaboration in 1972.

"The arrangement is not going to disturb the tourism-based activities at the site. Moreover, the beautification of the pagoda, including illumination, will also be taken up, and vendors near the pagoda rehabilitated near the bus parking facility at Dhauli foothill," Samal said.

Sources said the exact date for inauguration would be fixed, according to the schedule given by the Chief Minister's Office. Vicky Parida, a student of Pokhariput DAV Public School, said: "We have been listening about the light-and-sound show for over a year. When it opens, I will visit the hill along with friends to watch it."

A tourism department official said: "The department will provide a generator set as a standby arrangement for uninterrupted power supply during the show. The plying of big buses will be stopped in the future in a phase-wise manner with due consultation with the tour and bus operators and hotel owners. There was also a proposal to include small buses by Bhubaneswar Puri Transport Services Limited to carry passengers from the foothill to the hilltop."

While the Dhauli Development Council, a local trust of which the Khurda collector is the chairman, will run the shows, its publicity will be taken care of by the tourism department.