All unreached villages of Odisha to have mobile connectivity : Vaishnaw
BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister for Railways, Communications and Electronics & IT Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said villages not covered by mobile and internet connectivity in the State will have access to digital technology by the end of 2022-23.
The Minister said around 6000 villages in the State do not have mobile connectivity. The Centre has sanctioned funds for installation of mobile towers in 3,933 uncovered villages of the State. “We will complete the survey of the remaining villages and submit a proposal to the Union Cabinet for approval as soon as possible,” Vaishnaw told mediapersons here.
On a one-day visit to the State to sensitise people on budget allocation to Odisha by the Centre and progress achieved under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’, the Union Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is determined to fulfil his vision of ‘Mission Purvodaya’ and the steps to increase the tele-density in the State is part of the scheme.
He said the scheme to provide 4G mobile services to 3,933 villages including those from aspirational districts will be completed by December, 2022.
Responding to queries on poor BSNL connectivity, he said the national PSU is in revival mode and had shown an operational profit after a long time last year. The UPA government has left BSNL bankrupt and it is now being revived.
The Centre had allocated Rs 90.000 crore in 2019 and another Rs 45,000 crore has been allocated in the budget this time. Assuring better connectivity, Vaishnaw said BSNL will roll out 4G technology by the end of this year.
He said telecom research and development firm Centre for Development Telematics (C-DoT) together with Tata Consultancy Service (TCS) is in the process of virtualisation of 5G technology.
The bureaucrat-turned-politician said designing of the 5G technology has progressed satisfactorily and will be introduced in the market for mobile phone and radio network very soon. On development of railways in Odisha, Vaishnaw said the State has received more funds under the BJP government at the Centre than during the UPA regime.
Compared to around Rs 800 crore allocation for the railways in UPA regime, the State was allocated Rs 4,126 crore in 2014 after the BJP came to power. Now this has gone up to Rs 9,734 crore which is historic. He, however, parried questions on year wise expenditure against the allocations in the last seven years.