BSNL Urges DoT to Release Rs 250 Crore Worth of Funds for Network Expansion in LWE Affected Areas

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, the state-run telco has requested the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to release Rs 250 crore worth of funds to pay vendors who are working on the task of mobile network expansion in areas affected by Left Wing Extremism. BSNL has further said to the department, that it risks losing the interest of vendors in doing further network infrastructure development in the area if the repayment is not made on time. To highlight the issue, the state-led telco has sent numerous letter to DoT.

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BSNL Network Expansion

Anupam Shrivastava said to ETTelecom “We have written to DoT to pay around Rs 250 crore and expect the funds to be released this month.” He also went on to explain that the payment which BSNL is asking, is for the extension of tower sites.

During the time of allocation, it was Home Ministry which granted a sum of Rs 3,567.58 crore to be used for maintenance of 1,836 sites in addition to 363 existing sites over a period of five years. In December 2016, 2,189 sites were functional out of which 1,829 were new, and 356 were existing sites. Apart from the existing sites, the government has approved 156 mobile towers to be set up in the areas affected by Left Wing Extremism. The subsidy support for this project of Rs 275 crore has been granted by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

In a letter dated July 7, BSNL complained that USOF was delaying funds citing reasons like the USOF needed “further information/documents”. It was in May, this year that the Union Cabinet had granted clearance to 4,072 mobile towers in addition to the existing ones. This project is also to be carried out with USOF’s support. For the second phase of LWE-II scheme the department targeted 96 districts in 10 states affected by LWE, for this task, the USOF cleared outlay of Rs 7,330 crore to be spent on network infrastructure expansion.