The Centre has lined up a slew of investment proposals to improve telecom and IT infrastructure in Assam and the North-East, beside laying “special emphasis” in improving tele-connectivity and tele-density in insurgency-hit areas. In the next fiscal, BSNL will invest Rs 384 crore to set up nearly 850 new towers in the region. In addition, Rs 4.16 lakh has been sanctioned to BSNL for additional capacity building in 2010-11 fiscal in the North-East. These apart, another Rs 250 crore would be spent in the coming years for laying an ambitious optical fibre cable (OFC) network, which would be of 800 kms in length.
Talking to reporters here today, Union minister of state for IT and communications, Sachin Pilot, said, “We want telephone penetration into every village and every single panchayat in the North-East. Private operators are not willing to go to troubled areas as those areas are not financially viable. So, BSNL will take the lead and will provide quality service in cheap rates.” He added that “special emphasis” will be laid in “deploying” towers in border areas, tribal regions and areas that are affected due to insurgency. Pilot was in the city to chair a review meeting of department of IT’s activities, rural telephony and quality of services in the North-East. He said that in the meeting “agenda” for next fiscal for North-Eastern states was discussed.
The IT department spent nearly Rs 680 crore in North-East in this fiscal. The OFC project, which would be undertaken for the first time in the North East, would connect Guwahati with all districts and panchayats in Assam. Pilot said that with these efforts, the number of telephone subscribers in the region would grow to over 32 lakh by March 2010, from 28.15 lakh in December 2009.