Bhubaneswar, June 15: Come Nabakalebar, visitors will be able to enjoy free Wi-Fi on Grand Road popularly known as Badadanda in Puri.
The facility will be ready by June 30 or first week of July.
Sources said it would facilitate broadband users to operate their devices free for the first 30 minutes and after that it would be chargeable.
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has already finished the fibre optic cable laying work along the Grand Road and only connections for routers are to be made to make it user-friendly.
The telecom major has already started providing Wi-Fi services at the Sun temple in Konark from May 21. The visitors are now able to connect to the world with a wireless bandwidth of 10Mbps.
The Mbps is a data transfer rate on telecom network.
The 10Mbps bandwidth is quite a faster facility as the normal user in the city uses only 2Mbps for the broadband network.
Speaking on the sidelines of a media conference for the official launching of the national free roaming facility for the BSNL subscribers from today, chief general manager (technical) of the telecom circle Bijayananda Mishra said: "The Sun temple project was taken up under the Adarsh Smarak (model monument) category for which the Centre has sanctioned fund to provide world-class tourist friendly facilities at 25 major monuments across India. The second one was granted for the Jagannath temple. As security reasons do not allow execution of the Wi-Fi project inside the Puri temple, the BSNL will extend the service on the Grand Road, famous for the car festival."
Mishra said infrastructure upgrade would be carried out along the Puri-Bhubaneswar NH-203 so that the telecom users didn't face situations such as call drop.
For this, along the Grand Road four temporary telecom towers will be placed by the end of this month.
Another senior engineer of the BSNL said a team of engineers would make a thorough survey of the signal receiving capacity at all major points along the Puri-Bhubaneswar NH-203 within two days.
Based on the requirement, facilities will be upgraded so that the customers didn't face any difficulty during the car festival.
General manager, Odisha Telecom Circle, A.K. Pahi said: "The free roaming facility will also help pilgrims during the car festival. According to the facility, a BSNL mobile user has to pay no extra charge for receiving call even if he or she is outside the telecom circle. For example, if a person is in Mumbai or in New Delhi, he or she can receive calls without paying anything for the services of the Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited."
People who are always on the move can reap the benefits of this facility. Pahi also said mobile users from other service providers, who want to come to BSNL network, could take the benefit without any change in the old number.
Last month, the BSNL started free night calling service from old and new land phones to any number across India between 9pm and 7am without extra charges.
Tour operator Debashish Mohapatra said: "The BSNL must keep its words and ensure trouble free network during the car festival for tourists."
