2,000 cell towers to come up in ASR, Manyam districts

VISHAKHAPATNAM: The central government under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) is installing over 2,000 cell towers in the remote areas of ASR and Parvathipuram districts.

The aim is to provide quality and affordable mobile and digital services so that the adivasis in these two districts will have equitable access to knowledge and information dissemination. This would lead to rapid socio-economic development with a marked improvement in the standard of living of the tribals, officials said.

The USOF is attached to the Union department of telecommunications.

“Around 1,800 towers are being established in three revenue and ITDA jurisdictions of  Paderu, Chintur and Rampachodavaram. We have handed over the sites to three companies. The towers are mostly coming up in the Left Wing Extremism affected areas,’’ ASR district collector Sumit Kumar said.

The collector said Airtel will be installing 141 towers, Reliance 550 and BSNL the other towers. Some

102 towers have been installed and are operational while work is going on in another 303 locations. The entire project would be completed and made operational in another 18 months.

The collector said the introduction of cellphone and internet services will be a game-changer for the ASR district. Health services will improve particularly in remote villages where people will now have access to ambulance and telemedicine services.

Similarly, ward secretariats would become more proactive, rendering services to every corner of the district. This apart, education can be made online in places where teachers are reluctant to attend the schools in inaccessible areas, the collector noted.

Among the others, smart Internet-connected CCTVs in strategic places would help the drug enforcement agencies to keep track of ganja smugglers who have been dodging the law-enforcement agencies, while the forest department, by using the same cameras, can monitor the movement of wild animals.

As of now, the district has Internet and cell services in 30 per cent of the geographical area.

In the Parvatipuram Manaym district, which is another tribal-dominated area, sanction has been given for 170 towers. Four of these towers began operating for the last three days.

“People rejoiced and took selfies in front of the towers,’’ Manyam collector Nishant Kumar said.