Hyderabad, Jan 6 (IANS): Telangana's tower density is 0.71 per thousand population against the national average of 0.42 per cent, Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar said on Wednesday while presiding over the second meeting of the State Broadband Committee.

The National Broadband mission has set the tower density target of 1.7 by 2024.

Kumar informed that the government is committed for the fiberisation of Base Station Towers (BTS) and extend necessary support for the better communicational coverage in the state.

The state is having 35 per cent of fiberisation of BTS at present and will reach the target of 70 per cent set by National Broadband Mission. The chief secretary assured representations from electricity and Panchayat Raj departments to sort out the issues.

Telangana currently has 24,961 towers and the balance target is 34,902 towers. Necessary approvals will be given for 109 sites pending for the erection of towers. The government will pay special focus on 140 uncovered gram panchayats, Kumar said.

Sunil Sharma, principal secretary, transport and buildings department, Jayesh Ranjan, principal secretary, information technology, electronics and communication department, J.V.Raja Reddy, advisor, DOT-LSA Unit, Hyderabad, G.Suresh Reddy, Director (Rural), DOT-LSA Unit, Sujay Karampuri, Director(Electronics) ITE&C Dept., Cmdr Dr.J.Jena, DDG, Cellular Operators Association of India, T.R. Dua, DDG, Tower & Infrastructure Provider Association attended the meeting.