Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Pema Khandu on Wednesday informed the State Legislative Assembly that his Government is giving thrust in improving digital connectivity in the State referring his meeting in Guwahati under the chairmanship of Union Minister IT and Telecommunications Minister where the Union Minister had announced to support Arunachal Pradesh government in its development projects including installation of 2046 mobile towers in the State with a total cost of Rs 1793 crore.
On the directions of Chief Minister Khandu, a meeting was held on Tuesday under the chairmanship of the State Chief Secretary to review the current progress of all the digital connectivity schemes being implemented in the state. Representatives of Bharat Broadband Networks Limited (BBNL), BSNL, Railtel and Secretary IT were present in the meeting.
Progress of digital connectivity work in all the block panchayats in the State was reviewed. Railtel informed that out of 1783 panchayats, 677 panchayats are being connected by Railtel. A total of 407 Panchayats will be provided connectivity through VSAT by BSNL. For remaining Panchayats, BBNL has proposed to lay the optical fibre cable through the electric poles. This is expected to be completed by December 2018.
A total of 114 blocks will be connected with high-speed internet connectivity from the district headquarters with 195 nodes by BBNL. Connectivity to all the district headquarters and block headquarters will be provided by laying optical fibres through the electric poles wherever feasible. This is also expected to be completed by December 2018.
BSNL will take up a comprehensive project for strengthening of the connectivity between the districts with the state capital. It is expected that this exercise will be completed by August 2019.
The Chief Secretary directed the BBNL and the BSNL to complete the entire project in phase-wise manner with fixed timelines for each project and directed Secretary IT to bring out a Tower Policy within two months with clear-cut mechanism to shorten the timelines of issuance of NOC required by BSNL Authorities for installation of towers and laying of cables.
It was decided that monthly meetings will be held at the level of DCs, Secretary IT and bimonthly meeting at the level of Chief Secretary to review the progress of all the schemes being executed by Railtel, BSNL and BBNL.