Puri: Poor internet connectivity across the Holy city played spoilsport for the visitors, who had come to witness the Rath Yatra here as they were seen struggling to make e-payments or stay connected digitally.
Several places here witnessed very thin or no internet connection and also frequent network disruptions thus dampening the spirit of the devotees.
The severe cyclonic storm Fani that ravaged the city May 3 destroyed many telecom networks. Though restoration work started immediately, the city is still reeling under the crisis. “I was running out of cash and I needed to book a family room in one of the hotels here. However, when I went to hotels I was surprised to know that none of the hotels were accepting cards or e-payments since their servers were down,” complained Sukanti Chand who had come here from Rayagada.
Cash crunch
While e-payments were denied by many hoteliers the situation worsened with lack of ATMs and ATMs running out of cash. With more than 70 hotels around the Beach Road there were just three ATMs that either witnessed long queues or no cash at all.
The crisis has got flak from people largely because of the festive time and especially when the Central government has been pushing for cashless transactions.
“It’s not only the lack of ATMs that is causing problems. Travelling on vehicles is also not easy as the authorities have put restrictions on different paths. The tourists from abroad rely heavily on credit cards and e-payments. This puts our country in bad spot which is disappointing,” said Srimanta Das who runs a tour agency here.
Transmission woes
While the travellers and devotees were hassled by the lack of e-payments and crash crunch, media persons struggled to digitally connect with the world to showcase the event.
With frequent disruptions in networks and connectivity many media persons were seen running from pillar to post to upload photos of Rath Yatra or connect to their media houses for live phone calls.
Jurgen Schmatloch, a German reporter, said, “I planned to have a live video calling session to showcase the event at my workplace but after several attempts the video quality was poor or did not have any connection at all. Now, I am planning to send a video but the heavy data content requires good internet which is unavailable at the moment.”