Bhubaneswar: Residents will have seamless Internet connection in various parts of the city with the administration here is gearing up to introduce Wi-Fi service in several priority corridors.
The service will be provided as part of the smart city's Wi-Fi project with the administration is getting ready to roll out its first phase. The residents and visitors will be able to avail themselves of the service before September.
Sources said the project had been put on fast track, keeping in view the upcoming men's hockey world cup that will be held here at Kalinga Stadium in November. "We have decided to roll out the first phase on immediate basis for the world cup," said an official of the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation.
Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, the special purpose vehicle executing the smart city projects, will monitor the project implementation in the city. Initially, the Wi-Fi service will be provided at as many as 75 strategic locations with nearly 300 access points.
"We are going to float a tender to select the service provider. It would be a national tender, and we will select the most potential bidder for the project. We will make sure that the bidder will have the ability to complete the task on time," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.
Officials said the locations, where the service would be provided, were be the most central parts of the city, including the entire vicinity of Kalinga Stadium, Jayadev Vihar, Saheed Nagar, Vani Vihar, IRC Village, Old Town, Master Canteen, Kharavela Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Siripur, Nayapalli and the airport area among others.
"We plan to provide the service for free, but it is yet to be finalised. The selected service provider will prepare the roadmap and come up with the execution plan. If not entirely free, the users will definitely get the first few hours of seamless Internet service without paying any cost," said a smart city official.
A pilot City Wi-Fi project had been rolled out in 2015 at five locations in the city. Later with the advent of the smart cities mission, the project gets incorporate in it. In the new plan, the Software Technology Park of India has prepared the project report for the City Wi-Fi, which once completed will have 5,000 access points.
"We had taken inputs from the trial run of the service and amended the project report accordingly. Now, we are going to roll out the first phase of the project, where 300 access points will be provided. It will be expanded to other parts of the city in later stage," said another smart city official.
