SHILLONG: Over 900 villages in the three districts of Garo Hills will have access to 2G mobile connectivity thanks to the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North Eastern region.
West, South and East Garo Hills districts will benefit from the plan.
“The Union Government is committed to providing mobile connectivity in rural and remote areas in the country. To bridge the connectivity gap and improve the telecom infrastructure, comprehensive development plan for the North East Regional was approved by Government with an estimated cost of Rs 5536.18 crore on July 10, 2014,” Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Ravi Shankar Prasad stated in a letter addressed to former Lok Sabha Speaker and Tura MP Purno A Sangma recently.
“I assure you that we make all efforts to ensure provision of reliable communication facilities across the Northeast region including the Garo Hills,” Prasad told Sangma.
Earlier, the former Lok Sabha Speaker in a letter addressed to Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology had submitted a list of villages and location that urgently needed mobile connectivity.
“All these villages do not have any form of mobile connectivity, but have sufficient population to make it viable. At the same time, there are some areas which are along the border with Bangladesh where people are using Bangladesh mobile networks due to unavailability of any Indian mobile service providers,” Sangma had stated.
According to him, the use of Bangladesh mobile network is not only inconvenient for the people as it costs them more, but is also not safe for the villagers and the BSF jawans to use the neighbouring country’s services.
While congratulating the Minister for his decision to expand mobile connectivity by setting up BSNL towers throughout the country especially in North East, Sangma said that the region needs special attention in this regard not only because of the poor connectivity but also due to sensitivity of the region which shares 98 per cent of its borders with foreign countries.
