Bhubaneswar, Feb 6 (IANS): Union Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday said the Centre would install about 4,000 mobile towers in various places across Odisha very soon.
Addressing a press conference here, Vaishnaw said nearly about 6,000 villages in Odisha remain out of mobile connectivity due to lack of mobile towers.
In December last year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had sanctioned a proposal for installation of mobile towers at 3,933 sites in the state, he said, adding in some places, one site will cover more than one village.
"There is a clear instruction from the Prime Minister that not a single village of Odisha should be left out from mobile connectivity. The PM has asked us to conduct a survey and come out with a Cabinet note, if any village has still left out. This is what we called Mission Purvodaya," the Minister said.
He said the BSNL, which went bankrupt during the UPA government regime, is being revived by the Modi government.
"For the first time, the BSNL has come to operating profit level during last year. This happened because, Modi had first approved a package of Rs 90,000 crore in 2019 for the revival of BSNL and MTNL. Now, in this year, again Rs 45,000 crore has been allocated for the two telecom companies to uplift those to the next higher level," Vaishnaw said.
Further, the Prime Minister has instructed to develop 4G and 5G technology in India. While 4G technology has already been developed and is in testing stage while the 5G technology for both phone and radio networks will be developed soon, he informed.
On the allocation in the Union Budget 2022-23 for development of railways in Odisha, Vaishnaw said the state has been sanctioned more funds under the BJP government at the Centre than the UPA rule.
Average annual budget allocation for railways in the State of Odisha was around Rs 800 crore per year during 2009-14. This allocation has been enhanced to Rs 4,126 crore per year during 2014-19, he said.
In this budget, he said, the government has allocated a historic highest amount of Rs 9,734 crore for the development of railways in Odisha. He further said that 12 railway stations of Odisha will be upgraded.
Earlier, the Union Minister at the Odisha BJP office here, paid floral tributes to legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar who passed away on Sunday morning.