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Govt. to increase rural tele-density
By agencies
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Monday, 07 February 2005, 20:30 IST
NEW DELHI: The Government will increase the rural tele-density in the country to usher in the telecom revolution, IT and Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran today said. A focused approach is required to increase the tele-density in the rural areas, Maran said.
The urban tele-density is 25 percent while it is 1.1 percent in the rural areas and this gap shows that a concerted approach needs to be adopted for increasing the tele-density in rural areas, Maran said.
Speaking on rural telephony, Maran said at present there are 120 million rural telephone connections. Out of six lakh villages in the country, most have been provided with Village Public Telephone (VPT). However villages, which are affected by insurgency and those with population less than 100 have been excluded. Thus, a total of 21,000 such villages have been excluded. "The remaining villages would be covered by VPTs in a phased manner by November, 2007," Maran said.
The Minister also informed that the waiting list of 1.3 million in the rural areas will be cleared within 12 months and steps would be taken to enhance the capacity additionally.