BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday launched the much-awaited ‘Bhubaneswar Me WiFi’ project to make the Capital a fully WiFi-enabled city ahead of Hockey World Cup.
He also announced that his Government will soon extend the facility to all municipal corporations.
Launching the project from the State Secretariat here, Naveen said “It’s a historic day for Bhubaneswar. The City of Temples will have an IT backbone comparable to the best modern cities in the world.”
With this move, the Capital will stamp its entry as a global Smart City with 500 hotspots spanning the entire city, he said. The move will be a game changer for youth in realising the heights of knowledge economy, Naveen added. Asking youth to utilise the world-class facility, the Chief Minister said there will be no charge on data usage for citizens under the project as free data pack will be provided.
“As part of my commitment for 3Ts - Technology, Transparency and Teamwork - in the coming days, we will have similar free WiFi facilities in the corporations of Cuttack, Sambalpur, Berhampur, Rourkela,” Naveen said, adding, “Jagannath Dham Puri will also be extended this facility soon,” he added.Implemented by the Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited, the ‘Bhubaneswar Me WiFi’ project will initially have 100 hotspots enabled locations with 275 access points. Gradually, the hotspot locations will be increased to 518 with 1,800 access points.
The stretches to be covered in the first phase are KIIT Square to Governor House Square, Gopabandhu Square to Governor House Square, Airport to Acharya Vihar, Nalco Square to Acharya Vihar, Kalpana Square to Rasulgarh Square, Shishu Bhavan to Vani Vihar and Main points between Rasulgarh Square.
BSCL officials said the internet speed in the city WiFi network will be 2mbps and each user will get 250 mb free data a day under this facility. After exceeding the limit the user has to log in and choose a payment plan for subsequent use.