Jio to cover 100% Bengal population by December 2018: Ambani

Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Tuesday said the Jio network will cover 100 per cent of West Bengal's population by December 2018 and also committed over Rs 5,000 crore of investments in the state for non-Jio businesses in the next three years.

Addressing the Bengal Global Business Summit here, Ambani said the company will set up an electronics manufacturing facility in the state.

"Our current Jio network covers 1,000 towns and nearly 39,000 villages in the state. Jio will reach 100 per cent of West Bengal's population by December 2018. Every last village will be covered by 4G technology. We are embarking on an ambitious project of connecting Bengal with optical fibre," he said. 

According to him, Jio will connect every education institution and hospital in the state by December 2019.

The group will launch the digital service centre in five districts of the state, with the immediate effect of facilitating digital entrepreneurs.

He promised to set up an electronics manufacturing facility in the state.

Ambani said the group has prioritised the availability of 4G Jio phone in the state with effective zero cost. 

"We are committing to invest Rs 5,000 crore in non-Jio businesses in Bengal in the next three years," he said.

Applauding the West Bengal government's economic activities and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Ambani said: "Didi, under your leadership, Bengal is becoming the best Bengal."

Ambani said he attended the second edition of the business summit in 2015. "Reliance had committed an investment of Rs 4,500 crore in Bengal...We have invested and committed not just Rs 4,500 crore but we have completed an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore in the last two years."

He said the company was able to make the investments as the state created a "friendly" climate and enabling policy and infrastructure.

He said the company would focus on digital space.

Jio will set up a Chair in the name of Physicist Satyendra Nath Bose in a prestigious institution in West Bengal, he said.