The cabinet has reportedly approved the upgradation of 2G mobile sites to 4G in naxal-hit areas at a cost of Rs 24.26 billion.
As per industry sources, the project is spread across naxal-affected area in 10 states and the task has been assigned to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). The indigenously developed core network, radio network and telecom equipment will be used to upgrade the mobile towers to 4G.
In total 2,542 mobile towers will be upgraded across the 10 states. This includes 346 sites in Andhra Pradesh, 16 sites in Bihar, 971 sites in Chhattisgarh, 450 in Jharkhand, 23 in Madhya Pradesh, 125 in Maharashtra, 483 in Odisha, 33 in West Bengal, 42 in Uttar Pradesh and 53 tower sites in Telangana.
