Modi Government Rolling Out 4G Connectivity To Remote Border Villages In Arunachal Pradesh

All villages along Arunachal Pradesh’s border with Chinese-Occupied Tibet (COT), including tiny hamlets, will get 4G connectivity within a year’s time. 

Union Law Minister Kiren Rijiju, who rolled out the vital connectivity programme under the ‘Vibrant Villages Scheme’ framed by the Narendra Modi government Saturday (April 22), said that 2,605 4G mobile towers for providing excellent connectivity to 3,721 villages will be erected at a cost of Rs 2,675 crore. 

Saturday’s roll-out of the 4G connectivity programme will benefit 70,000 people in 336 strategically located villages and small towns along or close to the Line of Actual Control (LAC) with COT. 

Union Electronics & IT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said at the event to mark the first roll-out of the 4G connectivity scheme that the inhospitable terrain, rough weather conditions and remoteness of many areas posed a tough challenge to engineers. 

“We overcame all those challenges. The 4G tower at Tawang is the highest in the country at 12,600 feet. A lot more will be done to provide excellent world-class connectivity, including physical connectivity, to Arunachal Pradesh,” he said. 

BSNL is setting up 650 towers to provide 4G services to 1,243 villages while Airtel will set up 650 towers to serve 1036 villages. About 91 more towers are being erected to provide connectivity to 195 border outposts and border inspection posts of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) and the Army. And 170 satellite public telephones are being provided for use by forces guarding the LAC. 

Chief minister Pema Khandu, who was present, said that while 5G services have been launched in state capital Itanagar, the same will be rolled out in other urban centres soon. “We will provide 4G services to every household in the state, including those in tiny remote hamlets, by the end of next year. The 4G network will be upgraded to 5G after that,” he said. 

The chief minister said that 3,402 villages in the state have been provided mobile coverage recently and 2,358 villages now have broadband connectivity. 

Arunachal Pradesh has been witnessing a slew of development projects since 2014 when the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi came to power. The focus has been to build physical infrastructure very rapidly within the state and to strategic points along the LAC. 

Apart from road, rail and air connectivity, the Union Government has also laid stress on internet connectivity.

This represents a complete reversal of the earlier policy followed by successive Congress regimes at the federal level to keep the state, especially the border areas, backward. 

The warped logic was that good roads, rail lines and airfields would facilitate easy access to the Indian hinterland to the Chinese in case of outbreak of hostilities. The Modi government junked that short-sighted policy.