Odisha to get around 4,000 telecom towers, historic allocation of Rs.9,734 cr to state in Railway Budget 2022: Ashwini Vaishnaw

There is a clear instruction from the PM that not a single village of Odisha should be left out from mobile connectivity

PGurus Newsdesk

February 6, 2022

There is a clear instruction from the PM that not a single village of Odisha should be left out from mobile connectivity

Odisha to soon see the installation of 4K telecom towers, says Ashwini Vaishnaw

On Sunday, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology said that the Centre would install about 4,000 mobile towers in various places across Odisha very soon.

Vaishnaw was addressing a press conference. He said that nearly about 6,000 villages in Odisha remain out of mobile connectivity due to lack of mobile towers.

In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sanctioned a proposal for the installation of mobile towers at 3,933 sites in the state, he said, adding in some places, one site will cover more than one village.

“There is a clear instruction from the Prime Minister that not a single village of Odisha should be left out from mobile connectivity. The PM has asked us to conduct a survey and come out with a Cabinet note if any village has still been left out. This is what we called Mission Purvodaya,” the Minister said.

He said the BSNL, which went bankrupt during the UPA government regime, is being revived by the Modi government. “For the first time, the BSNL has come to operating profit level during last year. This happened because Modi had first approved a package of Rs.90,000 crore in 2019 for the revival of BSNL and MTNL. Now, in this year, again Rs.45,000 crore has been allocated for the two telecom companies to uplift those to the next higher level,” Vaishnaw said.

Further, the Prime Minister has instructed to develop 4G and 5G technology in India. While 4G technology has already been developed and is in the testing stage while the 5G technology for both phone and radio networks will be developed soon, he informed.

On the allocation in the Union Budget 2022-23 for the development of railways in Odisha, Vaishnaw said the state has been sanctioned more funds under the BJP government at the Centre than the UPA rule.

The average annual budget allocation for railways in the State of Odisha was around Rs.800 crore per year during 2009-14. This allocation has been enhanced to Rs.4,126 crore per year during 2014-19, he said.

In this budget, he said, the government has allocated a historic highest amount of Rs.9,734 crore for the development of railways in Odisha. He further said that the 12 railway stations of Odisha will be upgraded.

[With Inputs from IANS]

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