Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said at least four cities of Odisha will get the 5G telephony services by March 2023 and 80 per cent area of the state will have access to the upgraded network by the end of next year.

Around 200 big cities in the country will be covered in the first phase of the launch of 5G services, and it will be subsequently extended to towns and rural areas, he said on the sidelines of a programme here.

"In the first phase, four-five cities of Odisha will get 5G services by March 2023, and by the end of next year, around 80 per cent area of the state will be covered," said Vaishnaw, the union minister for railways, communications, electronics and information technology.

The time period for the first phase of launching the fifth-generation services is up to March 2023, he said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on October 1 launched the 5G services that promise to provide ultra high-speed internet on mobile phones.

At least 13 major cities such as Ahmadabad, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Gandhinagar, Gurugram, Hyderabad, Jamnagar, Kolkata, Chennai, Lucknow, Pune, Delhi and Mumbai were supposed to be covered by the 5G services in the first phase.

Vaishnaw also reviewed several ongoing railway projects in the state.

The work for the Khurda-Bolangir rail line has made "impressive progress", he said, adding that there were some problems as railway tracks of over 100 kilometre pass through forest areas in the route.

Vaishnaw also said the Bhubaneswar railway station will soon be transformed into a world-class facility.

The planning, design and other related work for the upgradation of the station has been completed and the "bhumi pujan" will be held soon, he said.