Bhubaneswar to join league of WiFi enabled cities

If things move as planned, Bhubaneswar will soon join the league of cities in the country boasting of WiFi connectivity.

For implementing the project, the state IT (information technology) department has engaged Software Technology Parks of India (STPI) as the consultant. The state government will bear the cost of implementing the project.

Other cities having WiFi connectivity are Patna having 20 km free WiFi zone, Bangalore (Mahatma Gandhi Road and Brigade Road) and Connaught Place area of the national capital New Delhi.

The New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) had tied up with telecom service provider Tata Docomo to offer WiFi services at the posh Connaught Place locality. “The entire capital city will be WiFi enabled and STPI has been asked to prepare a detailed project report. A proof of concept (PoC) study will be conducted at four to five places within the city,” said Pranab Prakash Das, state IT minister.

However, the minister said there will be no fully free WiFi zone in the city.

“WiFi services may be considered free of cost for about 20-30 minutes in a day as introduced in other cities. The revenue model will be worked out in consultation with STPI,” he added. Das claimed that Bhubaneswar will be the first city in the country to be completely WiFi enabled. The move for making the city WiFi enabled gained mommentum after chief minister Naveen Patnaik gave his nod to the plan of the IT department for ensuring seamless connectivity.

“Before executing this project, it is essential to make a detailed feasibility study, making available various advanced technologies, imbibing best practices in other cities if any, examine requirement of PoC study and sustainability of the project,” the IT department wrote to the director, STPI (Bhubaneswar) recently.

Sources said, STPI will be studying the best practices adopted by the cities both in the country and abroad. “We are working on the proposal of the state government and will submit the Terms of Reference (ToR),” said Manas Ranjan Panda, director, STPI Bhubaneswar.