ITANAGAR, Mar 14: The Centre has assured to help set up 2046 mobile/cellular towers in Arunachal Pradesh with a total cost of Rs 1793 Crore.
This was informed by Chief Minister Pema Khandu at the ongoing budget session of the assembly on Wednesday.
The chief minister recently held a meeting with the IT and Telecommunications Minister in Guwahati for improving digital connectivity in the state.
On the directions of the chief minister, a meeting was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of Chief Secretary Satya Gopal to review the progress of all the digital connectivity schemes being implemented in the state.
Representatives of Bharat Broadband Networks Limited (BBNL), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Railtel and Secretary IT were present in the meeting.
The meeting reviewed the progress of BharatNet, which comprised of digital connectivity to all block Panchayats.
It was informed that 677 Panchayats, out of the 1783, are being connected by Railtel, while 407 Panchayats will be provided connectivity through VSAT by BSNL. BBNL has proposed to lay optical fibre cables for the remaining Panchayats which is expected to be completed by the end of the year.
The officials of the BBNL informed that 114 blocks will be connected with district headquarters through high speed internet by December this year.
The BSNL will take up a comprehensive project for strengthening the connectivity between the districts with the state capital. It is expected that this exercise will be completed by August, 2019.
The chief secretary directed the BBNL and the BSNL to complete the entire project in phase wise manner with fixed timelines for each project.
He further directed the IT Secretary to bring out a policy within two months with clear cut mechanism to ease the process of issuing NOC required by the BSNL for installation of BTS (Base trans-receiver stations) towers and laying cables.
