Nod for proposal to set up 4,072 mobile towers in Naxal-affected areas.

The Cabinet Committee on Wednesday approved the Home Ministry’s proposal of setting up 4,072 mobile towers to improve the telecom network in 96 districts of the 10 Naxal-affected States. The total project cost would be Rs. 7,330 crore.

The network would be used by the security personnel deployed in the Left-wing extremism (LWE)-affected areas.

Connectivity in focus

“The project will also provide mobile services to help the residents in unconnected inhabited villages which will improve the economic activities in the region. It will give impetus to the e-governance activities in the backward and LWE-affected area with the availability of digital mobile connectivity,” a government statement said.

In phase-I, the budget for providing the mobile services using 2G technology in LWE areas was sanctioned at a cost of Rs. 4,080 crore, which is on completion stage and there are 2,335 sites radiating out of total 2,355 as on date, the government said. In the second phase, the MHA, in consultation with the concerned States, has identified 4,072 tower locations for the communication needs of the security personnel deployed in 10 States and provided to DoT in October. Technology proposed in Phase-II has been upgraded to 2G and 4G according to the requirement of stakeholders.

Of the 4,072 mobile towers, 1,054 will be installed in Jharkhand, 1,028 in Chhattisgarh, 483 in Odisha, 429 in Andhra Pradesh, 412 in Bihar, 207 in West Bengal, 179 in Uttar Pradesh, 136 in Maharashtra, 118 in Telangana and 26 in Madhya Pradesh. All the expenses are to be borne by the Universal Service Obligation Fund of DoT.

Strengthening network

The Cabinet has also approved the comprehensive telecom development plan (CTDP) for the North-Eastern Region (NER) in Meghalaya, at an estimated Rs. 3,911 crore. This is an enhanced cost of CTDP project for NER for an amount of Rs. 8120.81 crore ( Rs. 5336.18 crore was already approved by the Cabinet in September 2014).

HBL