In the wake of the massive destruction caused to the communication network in Leh due to the recent cloudburst, Sachin Pilot said the BSNL will spend Rs45 crore to normalise the services.
In the wake of the massive destruction caused to the communication network in Leh due to the recent cloudburst, minister of state for telecom Sachin Pilot today said the BSNL will spend Rs45 crore for reconstruction and expansion of facilities to normalise the services.
"Of this, around Rs23 crore will be spent on new technical and official buildings and residential accommodation, around Rs13 crore on mobile and transmission network and Rs9 crore on landline and broadband network," he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.
He further said that entire landline services will be restored within next seven-eight days in the region. The flood due to the cloudburst has washed away the main BSNL exchange office besides damaging infrastructure in the region.
The mnister admitted that there were some delays in restoration of BSNL services when compared to the private operators but said that unlike the latter which are profit-oriented organisations, BSNL tries to reach every nook and corner of the villages to meet the need of local people.
While promising to provide improved services, he said over 127 mobile base stations will be added in the Jammu and Kashmir region of which 11 will be in Leh region during the current year, taking total number of stations in the state to over 1,100.
Regarding public phone services, he said at least 160 villages in Leh have been provided subsidised public phones while 423 more places have been planned to be included during the current year.
However, he was non-committal on when the SMS services will be restored in Jammu and Kashmir region and termed it a security-related issue.
Talking further about the expansion plans in Leh, the minister of telecom said broadband services would also be delivered to rural areas through WiMAX technology which enables high-speed wireless internet.
"To achieve this, 108 Wimax towers would be added during 2010-2011," he said adding that quality of all services whether it is landline, mobile or broadband would be closely monitored.
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