Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan has directed the Universal
Services Obligation Fund (USOF) to prepare a new project report based on
the BSNL’s proposal for providing mobile connectivity in uncovered
villages by setting up telecom towers in Left Wing Extremism
(LWE)-affected areas and Meghalaya.
BSNL had made a proposal to the DoT that it could set up telecom
towers and provide mobile connectivity in both these regions at half the
cost compared to what the DoT’s own plan would have entailed. The
operator has said its cost is around Rs 78.23 lakh per tower as against
the DoT’s finalised cost of Rs 1.8 crore per tower, resulting in total
savings of Rs 6,000 crore for the government.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cleared projects for
setting up 4,072 telecom towers in LWE-affected areas at a cost of
around Rs 7,330 crore and a comprehensive telecom development plan for
Meghalaya at a cost of Rs 3,911 crore. Both the projects were approved
by the Cabinet in May. The technology to be used is 2G and 4G. The USOF
is the funding agency.
“Telecom secretary has now directed USOF to prepare a new detailed
project report (DPR) for LWE and Meghalaya projects on the basis of
revised lower estimates presented by BSNL, as they would bring down the
total project cost to less than half and the government will save more
than Rs 6,000 crore,” a senior government official explained.
The DoT will provide mobile connectivity in LWE-affected areas in 96
districts across 10 states. The second generation (2G) and 4G technology
will be deployed in this second phase of the project. In the first
phase, around 2,355 telecom towers providing mobile services using the
2G technology were set up at a cost of Rs 4,080 crore.
Under the comprehensive Northeast Development Plan, the government
aims to provide mobile connectivity in around 8,621 villages and along
national highways spread across the seven hill states through 7,000
telecom towers.