VIJAYAWADA, JAN 25   :    Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that the Government plans to extend communication facilities to people living in 5,459 remote habitations by establishing 2900 mobile towers. The Government has convinced the Centre to be part of the Rs 3,119 crore plan for which lands were already handed over to build 2900 towers.

The Chief Minister launched 300 4G mobile cell towers virtually from his camp office on Thursday in remote tribal areas of Alluri Seetharama Raju and Parvatipuram Manyam districts, taking the number of towers in remote areas across the State to 400. Speaking on the Chief Minister said these towers would provide communication facilities in remote areas where there is no connectivity so far.

Out of the 300 new towers, 246 were established in Alluri Seetharama Raju district while the rest were erected in Parvatipuram Manyam (44), Prakasam (4), Eluru (3), Srikakulam (2) and Kakinada (1) districts. AirTel and Reliance Jio established 136 and 164 towers respectively.

“Nearly two lakh people belonging to 944 habitations will get communication facilities with the new towers, ” he said, adding that 42,000 people benefited from the 100 towers established earlier. These towers were established with an expenditure of Rs 400 crore.” he stated.

The Chief Minister said that the Government aims at completing the construction of all the towers in the next one year and connectivity would help the people gain TV and mobile connections besides registering for the welfare schemes online.

The idea of extending mobile connectivity to remote areas is also part of the revolutionary changes being introduced to transform the rural landscape with village secretariats, village clinics, RBKs and English medium schools

IT and Industries Minister G Amarnath, Chief Secretary Dr KS Jawahar Reddy, IT Secretary K. Sasidhar, Communications Director (IT) C Chandrasekhara Reddy and representatives of AirTel and Reliance Jio were among those present.(UNI)