Bhubaneswar: The government is planning to introduce a 24x7 toll-free helpline for visitors to the city.

The helpline will try to provide visitors information about a range of topics, right from tourist attractions to emergency services.

The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the agency executing various smart city projects in the state capital, will implement the scheme. The helpline will be made operational by the end of July.

The decision of introducing such a helpline was taken keeping in view the upcoming men's hockey world cup that will be held here in November when the city is expecting a major tourist footfall. Since many of the tourists will be visiting the city for the first time, a helpline will a boon for them, said a source in the BSCL.

"We held a meeting to discuss how to improve various civic services during the men's hockey world cup. The idea of introducing the helpline cropped up in the meeting and the chief secretary instantly gave his nod. Our officials will now work on the modalities," said a BSCL official.

A wide-range of information including tourist attractions, upcoming and ongoing events and emergency services, among others, will be provided to the callers through the helpline.

The city administration has already introduced the BhubaneswarOne portal to guide visitors to various destinations of the state capital and the Bhubaneswar.Me portal to provide a wide range of information to visitors related to tourist attractions, food, hotels and bazaars and other related things.

"Both the websites are introduced to facilitate the tourists. But still we planned to make life simpler for the tourists by coming up with the helpline. We are working in close collaboration with the smart city officials and introduce the helpline number by the set deadline," said mayor Ananta Narayan Jena.

Workshop

As part of capacity building programme for city planners and government officials on child-friendly interventions, experts from Bernard van Leer Foundation (BvLF), in collaboration with the Bhubaneswar Development Authority (BDA), organised a workshop titled Urban-95 on early childhood development and urban planning at the development authority's conference hall on Tuesday.

Civic administrators, town planners, architects and child development and protection officers from the twin cities took part in the event.