C'garh govt asks for urgent deployment of 146 mobile towers

mobile towers have been a long-pending demand of Home Ministry, will strengthen the telecom network in areas facing security challenges

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With Naxals using vulnerability of the communications network to ambush security forces, the Chhattisgarh government has asked the Centre to urgently deploy 146 mobile towers in the state.

At a review meeting held in the Prime Minister's Office on February 20, the Chhattisgarh government representative said it has identified 146 spots in the state that need mobile towers installed on a priority basis.

The Additional Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh, who was present in the meeting, said that out of the 146 locations, 73 in Bastar division were "critical and needed prioritisation."

Naxals ambushed a security team in Chhattisgarh last week, killing 15 people, in a chilling reminder of the 2010 massacre in which 76 security personnel were killed in the same area in the worst-hit Sukma district.

The mobile towers, which have been a long-pending demand of the Home Ministry, will strengthen the telecom network in areas facing security challenges.

These areas are spread across nine states -- Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

Soon after a Maoist attack in Bastar in Chhattisgarh last year in which 27 people including senior Congress leaders were killed, the Cabinet had approved setting up mobile towers at a cost of about Rs 3,046 crore in the nine states affected by Naxal violence to improve communication in those areas.

State-owned BSNL was asked to set up towers at 2,199 locations in the states in 12 months from the day the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the project.

The project was to be completed by June but its progress was stalled due to differing cost estimates, sources said.

The requirement submitted by BSNL exceeded the project budget approved by the Cabinet by about Rs 789 crore, according to sources.

At the meeting in the PMO, a Department of Telecom representative agreed that the inter-ministerial panel would be called by February 27 to consider the matter, but this has been deferred twice as the DoT has yet to submit a report with its response to BSNL's cost estimate for the project.

Sources at DoT said the Telecom Commission meeting may be held next week if the report is submitted this week.

BSNL till date has installed 363 mobile towers in Naxal-affected areas, but a senior Chhattisgarh official complained that 351 towers set up in the state are non-functional.