Bhubaneswar: Smart digital kiosks installed by BSCL lie defunct in city

BHUBANESWAR: The digital kiosks supposed to help people book bus, train or air tickets, pay phone, electricity and water bills, avail information about city’s destinations, festivals and all with ease lie defunct in different parts of the city due to the callous attitude of Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited (BSCL), the executing agency of the project.

BSCL, the special purpose vehicle executing the smart city projects here, had taken up the project of installing the multi-purpose digital kiosks in different parts of the city in 2019. Accordingly, 70 such kiosks were installed at strategic locations, including Janpath, near the planetarium and on Jaydev Vihar-Nandankanan Road, among others.

The kiosks equipped with a large digital screen, close circuit television cameras, solar power panels, LED lights and internet are installed to help people find places of visit in the city, book tickets for transportation among other smart services, however, due to lack of proper care and maintenance, almost all the kiosks are currently lying in a defunct state.

“Bhubaneswar is not really ready for such services. Even if, the city administration needs to be extra careful in maintaining such services. There are people who do not understand such smart services and are eager to destroy it rather than making a proper use of it,” said Nayapalli resident Ratikant Ojha, an IT sector employee.

Apart from these 70 kiosks, the Smart City officials had also collaborated with a start-up to install five other such kiosks with more online services in other parts of the city, however here again the project failed and the start-up was later asked to remove the kiosks it had installed in different parts of the city.

“We had installed five digital kiosks at different strategic locations. It was ahead of the ones done by the BSCL. The civic body had given us the places and we did the installation, but not many people have evinced interest of using the kiosks. It was a loss for us as we decided to withdraw from the project,” C R Behera, member of the start-up which had installed the kiosks, said. BSCL CEO Vijya Amruta Kulange said they are planning to revive the kiosks.

“The digital kiosks have been installed at good locations. We have engaged our officials to come up with plans to revive the digital kiosks. It will be done soon and people will get the service again,” Kulange said.

The smart city authorities had first planned to install the digital kiosks on Smart Janpath along the Bhubaneswar Town Centre District. Initially, it was supposed to provide information about the city only. Later the plan was amended and the kiosks were introduced with more number of services.

The kiosks were also equipped with USB charging ports for mobile phones. “If not the ticket booking or pay bill services, the kiosks could have continued with the phone charging service. Often we face battery exhaustion problems. Such charging stations are a real need,” Suramya Tripathy, a resident of Ashok Nagar, said. People also blamed the smart city authorities of wasting public money. “The city authorities should have considered the feasibility of the project before going for its execution. It is nothing but a sheer waste of money,” Patia resident Nityanand Jena said.

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