The Union and the State governments are making all efforts to strengthen the communication system to provide better services in the Agency areas, Araku MP G. Madhavi has said.
Participating as chief guest at the foundation stone-laying ceremony for construction of a Jio mobile tower at Bhimavaram village of Hukumpeta mandal in Alluri Sitarama Raju district, on Monday, Ms. Madhavi said that the poor signal problems in the Agency areas had come up for discussion in Parliament on several occasions. She spoke on the need for improvement of mobile connectivity in the remote forest areas, to provide the benefits of welfare schemes being extended by the State government to various categories of beneficiaries.
She said that the lack of connectivity was turning out to be a problem in her village also. She said that those coming to the Agency for development of the area were welcome. She also appealed to the public to extend their cooperation for construction of the cell tower.
District Collector Sumit Kumar said that land has been allotted to Jio for construction of 162 cell towers in the Agency.
ITDA Project Officer Ronanki Gopalakrishna said that cell towers were being erected on the demand of people. The construction of five cell towers was commenced on Monday. He said that 663 cell towers would be set up in the Agency areas, under the purview of the ITDA. Rooms would be allotted to Jio in the ITDA office at Paderu. The construction of towers would be completed in 18 months. The lands were allotted in the Agency areas as per the resolution adopted at the District Level Committee (DLC) meeting.
Araku MLA Chetti Phalguna and Paderu MLA K. Bhagyalakshmi said that they would extend all cooperation for construction of the cell towers. They underlined the importance of improving mobile connectivity in the Agency areas for providing timely medical aid in times of emergency.
Jio AP State Coordinator B. Ravindranath Reddy said that the company has taken it up as a challenge to provide mobile network coverage to the remote area as part of which cell towers were being erected. He said that surveys were conducted in 1,228 villages and 5 G services would be provided to them in a year’s time.
Sub-Collector V. Abhishek, SP Satish Kumar and MPP K. Rambabu were present.
