Bhubaneswar, July 17: Devotees can now witness webcast, broadcast over Internet, of the chariot festival at the official Nabakalebar website of the state government at www.nabakalebara.gov.in.

"This being the Nabakalebar year, the enthusiasm to watch the festival live would be quite high. We will try to provide high-quality video to the Internet users," said Rudra Narayan Palai, executive director of Odisha Computer Application Centre that runs the website.

The state government has collaborated with Doordarshan for real-time broadcasting of the festival.

The link of the webcast will also be available on the Nabakalebar mobile app through which the smartphone users can see the proceedings live. The link would also be streamed on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook pages of the festival.

Updates will be posted on the official social networking pages of Nabakalebar throughout he day. "We will give real-time updates of the festival such as the bringing out of the deities from the temple and the arrival of the Puri king and so on," said Pratik Mohapatra, who heads the Prelude digital team that drives the social media campaign of the government.

Over the past few weeks, details on events, rituals, maps, helpline numbers and various public utilities available during the event were being regularly posted on the social networking sites. To make its online presence more visible on the day of rath yatra, the state government would also conduct a quiz competition. Every hour, a question related to the festival would be asked on the Twitter page and a lucky winner would receive a goody bag from the tourism department. The contest would begin at 8am and 12 questions would be asked throughout the day.

"The aim is to keep the audiences engaged and simultaneously educate them about Nabakalebar," said Pratik.

The festival would also be shown live on a number of private television channels. The live streaming of the festival will also be available in a few Odia websites such as www.incredibleorissa.com.

The state government has also provided the wireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) service to the public at Puri. The service would be available on the entire 3km stretch between the Jagannath temple and Gundicha temple. Apart from helping the thousands of devotees planning to visit the city for Nabakalebar festival, it would also help in making the festival available to a global audience. "Many travellers, especially foreigners, will want to update their profiles on social networks with posts of the festival. The Wi-Fi service will facilitate it," said information technology minister Pranab Prakash Das.

Engineering student Ashesh Behera, 23, who will visit Puri to see the festival, said: "I am going with friends and we are excited. The Wi-Fi service will be helpful and we will be able to post pictures as the chariots roll."

Since its launch on May 14, the digital campaign for Nabakalebar by the state government has gained immense popularity. Over 65,000 people have already liked the Facebook page. Four crore people have visited the website since its launch.