Solar powered phone booths for war-torn northern Sri Lanka

In an initiative aimed at providing telecom connectivity to Sri Lanka's war-ravaged Wanni, solar powered telephone booths will be set up in the region that receives inadequate electricity supply.      

The Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (TRC) has planned to set up solar powered coin-operated telephone booths in welfare centres in the North where civilians displaced by the just-concluded military operation are housed.      

The welfare centres are located in Vavuniya, Mannar and Jaffna.      

The initiative is part of a programme drawn up in collaboration with a telecommunication provider to develop facilities in rural areas without electricity.      

Under the first stage of this programme, Malaysia-based 'Tritel' company will instal 2,000 solar powered coin operated CDMA telephone booths at an investment of 500 million Sri Lankan Rupees in several rural areas across the country, the state-owned Daily News reported.      

The first model telephone booth under this programme was opened on an experimental basis in Colombo, the paper added.

TRC said this is an environment-friendly programme which will provide telecom facilities to the less privileged sector at a reasonable cost.