Patna will have world's longest free Wi-Fi zone: Bihar govt

The Bihar government claims it began the trial run for the world's longest free Wi-Fi zone, which covers a 20-km stretch in the capital Patna.

The service was demonstrated on Wednesday over a limited area in the vicinity of a hotel, where chief minister Nitish Kumar addressed a seminar organised to promote Bihar as an IT destination.

An official, who is part of the team executing the project, said people can avail of free Wi-Fi service from NIT on Ashok Rajpath in central Patna to Saguna on its western fringes once the infrastructure is put in place.

"Until now, a 3.5-km free Wi-Fi zone in China was considered the longest in the world, followed by a 2.5-km stretch in London," he added.

Students and officials of several educational institutions located along this route will be the major beneficiaries of the free service, the official said. Anyone with a Wi-Fi enabled gadget---tablets, laptops, mobile phones---can access Internet free of cost in this zone.

The government also plans to provide free Wi-Fi facility at all tourist spots in the state, said Bihar IT minister Shahid Ali Khan, while principal secretary (IT) NK Sinha claimed though Bihar is a late entrant to the IT sector, it is making strides in this direction.

Speaking at the two-day seminar, Kumar said Bihar had marched far ahead in terms of creating necessary infrastructure for investments in the IT sector.