Lok Sabha Question No. 1609 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-10
Subject: Mobile Connectivity in Strategically Important Villages
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Rajan Baburao  Vichare

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1609 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10 TH  FEBRUARY, 2021

## MOBILE CONNECTIVITY IN STRATEGICALLY IMPORTANT VILLAGES

## †1609. SHRI RAJAN VICHARE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Ministry is working on any scheme to strengthen rural India and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the total number of villages which have been connected with Optical Fiber Cable (OFC) so far, State/ UT-wise and the details thereof;
- (c) whether all the villages of strategic importance and those located in border areas are getting the facility of mobile connectivity and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the Ministry is working on any scheme to promote information technology in rural India and if so, the details thereof; and
- (e) the role played by the Ministry in the fight against COVID-19 along with the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

- (a) For strengthening telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country, the Department of Telecom has undertaken several schemes in the  past  like  Village  Public  Telephone  scheme,  Rural Wireline Broadband scheme, Shared mobile infrastructure scheme etc. Presently, the following major schemes, with support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), have been taken up by the Department of  Telecommunications:
- (i) BharatNet  Project :  This  project  is  being  implemented  in  a  phased  manner  to  provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (approx. 2, 50,000) in the country.  Under the project, the Last Mile connectivity is being provided through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband  technology,  including  Fiber  to  the  Home  (FTTH),  to  access  broadband/internet services at Public places & Government Institutions. As on 01.02.2021, Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 1,05,105 GPs and 4,85,723 FTTH connections have been provided.

- (ii) Provision of mobile services in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas under Phase-I has been completed by installing 2,343 towers.
- (iii) Provision  of 4G  mobile  services  in  Left  Wing  Extremism  (LWE)  affected  areas  under Phase-II by installing 2,542 number of tower sites .
- (iv) Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) for mobile connectivity in the North Eastern Region: As on 15.01.2021, a total number of 1,354 towers have been installed, and out of them 1,339 sites are providing services.
- (v) Provision  of 4G  Mobile  Coverage  in  85  uncovered  Villages  and  seamless  4G  Mobile coverage of NH223 in Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
- (vi) Provision  of Mobile  connectivity  in  354  uncovered  villages    of  Jammu  &  Kashmir, Ladakh,  Himachal  Pradesh,  Uttar  Pradesh,  Bihar,  Rajasthan,  Gujarat,  Uttarakhand, Border area & other priority areas.
- (vii) Provision of 4G mobile connectivity in 502 uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts in four States (namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh & Rajasthan).
- (viii) Laying  of  submarine  optical  fibre  cable  between  Chennai  and  Andaman  &      Nicobar Islands for providing high bandwidth connectivity to Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
- (ix) Submarine OFC Connectivity between Kochi and Lakshadweep Islands:

Further,  Ministry  of  Electronics  and  Information  Technology  (MeitY)      initiated  a  Pilot  Project'Implementation  of  Digital  Village'  to  cover  700  Gram  Panchayats/Villages      for  the  delivery  of citizen  centric  services  to  the  rural  citizens.      The  CSC  e-Governance  Services  India  Ltd  is  the implementing agency for the project.

(b) Under BharatNet project, the Gram Panchayats are being provided connectivity through an optimal mix of media (OFC/Radio/Satellite). As on 15.01.2021 a total number of 1,44,678 Villages (Gram Panchayats)  have been made Service Ready on OFC. The State/UT-wise details are given in Annexure-1 .

(c) Mobile connectivity in uncovered villages, including those of strategic importance and located in border areas in the country, is being provided by the Government and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) under various schemes. The Schemes, taken up with USOF support, are mentioned in para (a) (ii) to (a) (vii) above.

(d) The MeitY's Pilot Project-'Implementation of Digital Village' is for the delivery of citizen centric  services  to  the  rural  citizens.  The  project  is  for  provisioning  of    the  services  namely  TeleHealth,  Tele-Veterinary  consultation,  Education,  Financial  Inclusion  Awareness  Programme,  Skill Development, Solar street lights, Government to Citizens Services (G2C), Business to Citizen (B2C) Services, etc.

- (e) The following major initiatives for fight against COVID-19 have been taken up:
- (i) Various Ring back tones have been implemented to make the citizens of India aware about COVID-19, depending upon the changed circumstances and requirements from time to time as per direction of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
- (ii) Instructions  were  issued  to  all  TSPs  for  providing  Call  Detail  Records  (CDR)  and location of subscribers for tracing the contacts of the Corona infected subscribers.
- (iii) Covid Quarantine Alert System (CQAS) was developed for sending auto Email / SMS to State Government agencies, if an identified Corona positive or quarantined person moves away from his/her quarantined location area.
- (iv) Instructions  were  issued  to  all  Telecom  Service  Providers  to  make  the  AAROGYA SETU mobile APP free from all the data charges. i.e. no data charge to be incurred for downloading the AAROGYA SETU mobile APP and any subscriber with zero balance can also download the  AAROGYA SETU mobile APP.
- (v) Allocation of different short codes to various Central Ministries/ Departments, State Governments, Hon'ble Supreme Court and Hon'ble High Courts to mitigate the effect of COVID-19.

Annexure  referred  to  in  Part  (b)  of  the  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.  1609  for  Answer  on 10.02.2021

State/UT  wise  list  of  Service  Ready  villages  (GPs)  connected  by  Optical  Fibre  Cable  as  on 15.01.2021

| S. No.   | State/UT                           | No. of GPs service ready on OFC (excluding BHQs)   |
|----------|------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------|
| 1        | Andaman &Nicobar Islands           | 7                                                  |
| 2        | Andhra Pradesh                     | 1687                                               |
| 3        | Arunachal Pradesh                  | 79                                                 |
| 4        | Assam                              | 1497                                               |
| 5        | Bihar                              | 8287                                               |
| 6        | Chandigarh                         | 12                                                 |
| 7        | Chhattisgarh                       | 6561                                               |
| 8        | Daman &Diu and Dadra &Nagar Haveli | 36                                                 |
| 9        | Gujarat                            | 13039                                              |
| 10       | Haryana                            | 6080                                               |
| 11       | Himachal Pradesh                   | 246                                                |
| 12       | Jammu &Kashmir (including Ladakh)  | 381                                                |
| 13       | Jharkhand                          | 3200                                               |
| 14       | Karnataka                          | 6080                                               |
| 15       | Kerala                             | 977                                                |
| 16       | Lakshadweep                        | 0                                                  |
| 17       | Madhya Pradesh                     | 14509                                              |
| 18       | Maharashtra                        | 18059                                              |
| 19       | Manipur                            | 320                                                |
| 20       | Meghalaya                          | 122                                                |
| 21       | Mizoram                            | 41                                                 |
| 22       | Nagaland                           | 127                                                |
| 23       | Odisha                             | 5127                                               |
| 24       | Puducherry                         | 98                                                 |
| 25       | Punjab                             | 12656                                              |
| 26       | Rajasthan                          | 8711                                               |
| 27       | Sikkim                             | 22                                                 |
| 28       | Tamil Nadu                         | 0                                                  |
| 29       | Telangana                          | 1946                                               |
| 30       | Tripura                            | 569                                                |
| 31       | Uttar Pradesh                      | 30500                                              |
| 32       | Uttarakhand                        | 1508                                               |
| 33       | West Bengal                        | 2194                                               |
|          | Total                              | 1,44,678                                           |

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