Considering the strategic importance of the north east, the Telecom Commission has approved a comprehensive strategy to implement BharatNet in the region.
PTI reported that Union Minister Manoj Sinha stated that under this strategy all the uncovered gram panchayats in the region especially in Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Manipur and Tripura will be linked through broadband connectivity on satellite media by December 2018 at an estimated cost of Rs 733 crore.
Sinha said that under the Comprehensive Telecom Development Project for North East, 6994 towers would be set up to provide connectivity to 8621 villages and along the national highways at a cost of Rs 5336 crore.
MoU has already been signed between BSNL and USO Fund to set up 2817 towers in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam, while the work of setting up of 2004 towers in six states has been initiated by Bharti Airtel since December last year, which is to be completed in 18 months, the minister has informed PTI.
Admitting slow pace of BharatNet project in North East, the Union Minister attributed it to capacity of the implementing agencies, developmental activities like expansion of National Highways besides hilly terrain, excessive rainfall and law and order related issues.
Sinha said in order to ensure reliability and redundancy in the transmission network and augmentation of transmission media between state capitals in the region and also between state capitals and district headquarters, BSNL would set up about 3000 km of OFC network at an estimated cost of Rs 295.97 crore.
The second phase of BharatNet and Ashtamangal would be completed by December this year or March next year, Sinha added.
