According to Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister for Telecommunications and Electronics and Information Technology, work for Rs 3,370 million project to provide mobile services in 354 uncovered villages in remote and border areas of the country, is underway.
The project includes 144 border villages of Jammu & Kashmir (J&K) and Ladakh while the rest are in Bihar, Rajasthan, Uttrakhand, Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat.
Besides, the government is also installing very small aperture terminals (VSAT) to provide satellite phone services to soldiers in J&K and Ladakh. Further, satellite-based digital satellite phone terminals (DSPT) are also being provided at 1,347 sites for Indian Army, BRO, BSF, CRPF, ITBP and SSB, among others, out of which 183 sites have already been commissioned.
A total of 7,287 uncovered villages in 44 districts in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh will also be covered along with 24 districts of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh.
