Chhattisgarh Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand has informed Prime Minister Narendra Modi that out of the 497 mobile towers approved for the left Wing Extremism (lWE) regions in Chhattisgarh, a total of 465 have been installed.
In a video conference with the Prime Minister who was reviewing the infrastructural development status in various states, Dhand informed Modi that a total of 415 mobile towers have also started operating in the lWE regions of Chhattisgarh.
The Chief Secretary stated that the Bharat Sanchar Nigam ltd (BSNl) in co-operation with Chhattisgarh government had performed commendable work in the lWE regions which had led to completion of 94 per cent of the work of installation of mobile towers in South Bastar and Surguja regions of the State.
He further informed the Prime Minister that the 765 Kv Transmission line which is being laid by Powergrid Corporation is 357 kms long and 113 kms part of the line would be located in Chhattisgarh.
He said that a total of 148 transmission towers had already been erected while work is underway to erect another 154 towers.
Dhand said that work on 16 kms of Transmission line had already been achieved. Notably, BSNl is in the process of developing an elaborate ‘Optical Fibre Cable’ (OFC) network in the insurgency infested Dantewada district of Bastar.
The work had been taken up at Kuwakonda block of insurgency infested Dantewada district under National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), officials stated.
BSNl has been asked to ensure availability spare batteries for mobile towers, so that the used up batteries may be replaced by new ones immediately, officials stated.
Besides, BSNl has also been given instructions to keep batteries in reserve for towers located in insurgency infested areas.It has been asked to provide proper training to local youths and police personnel for maintenance of these towers, officials stated.
The mobile towers being installed in the remote pockets not served by conventional power supply are to be powered using solar energy equipment in the insurgency infested Bastar division. A directive in this regard was issued by Chief Secretary Vivek Dhand in a high-level meeting of State and Central government officials in the month of April this year.