Udupi : The Malpe beach, now first Wi-Fi beach in the three Coastal districts of the State,the BSNL launched free Wi-Fi facility for the beach visitors here on Sunday.

But this Wi-Fi facility will be available for 30 minutes per phone, with speeds matching 4G, per person per day. The Department of Tourism will pay the BSNL an amount of Rs. 1 lakh quarterly for the Wi-Fi service

This facility was launched on the Malpe beach at a function, organised by the District Administration, Department of Tourism and the Malpe Beach Development Committee, here.

Launching this facility, Pramod Madhwaraj, MLA, said that the Malpe beach attracted a lot of tourists from across the country.

The provision of the free Wi-fi facility would one more attraction for the tourists to visit the beach. “I will speak to the ministers concerned and urge them to provide round-the-clock Wi-Fi facility for tourists on the beach,” he said.

Mr. Madhwaraj said that the District Administration and the Malpe Beach Development Committee had made all arrangements for the safety of the tourists. An amount of Rs. 80 lakh had been spent for provision of various facilities for the tourists including maintaining cleanliness.

The facilities provided at the beach included construction of a watch tower, appointment of personnel to maintain cleanliness, lifeguard facility, toilet and parking facilities.

An equipment to clean the beach would be purchased at a cost of Rs. 70 lakh. An amount of about Rs. 5 crore would be spent on construction and development of roads to improve connectivity to the beach, Mr. Madhwaraj said.

D. Manjunathayya, CMC Commissioner, H. Vishnumurthy Bhat, AGM (Marketing), BSNL, P. Nagaraj, Assistant Director of Tourism, Sudesh Shetty of Beach Maintenance Committee, were present.