Govt to provide mobile connectivity to border villages

Mobile connectivity to 354 villages located in strategic and border areas will be provided soon, said Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Monday.

A tender for 144 uncovered villages in the strategic, remote and border areas has been finalised and is under implementation in the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, he said.

The rest of 210 villages are in Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat. These villages have been strategically chosen to cover border area connectivity on the mobile.

Satellite-based DSPTs (Digital Satellite Phone Terminal) are also being provided at 1,347 sites for the army, BRO, BSF, CRPF, ITBP, SSB in Jammu and Kashmir. Of which 183 sites are already commissioned and remaining are in the process, Prasad said.