Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy launched 300 4G mobile towers in the remote tribal areas of Alluri Sitharama Raju (ASR) and Parvatipuram-Manyam and other districts, taking the number of towers in the remote areas across the State to 400.
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Launching the towers virtually from his camp office at Tadepalli, near here, on Thursday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the towers would provide communication facilities in the areas where there had been no connectivity so far.
Out of the 300 new towers, 246 were set up in ASR district and the remaining in Parvatipuram Manyam (44), Prakasam (4), Eluru (3), Srikakulam (2) and Kakinda (1) districts.
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Airtel and Reliance Jio established 136 and 164 towers respectively. Nearly two lakh people belonging to 944 habitations would benefit, he said, adding that 42,000 people benefited from the 100 towers established earlier.
The inaugural programme was organised at two tribal hamlets — Eedulapalem in Paderu mandal and Liganda in Dumbriguda mandal.
ASR district Collector Sumit Kumar, MLAs K. Bhagya Lakshmi (Paderu) and Ch. Phalguna (Araku), and Superintendent of Police Tuhin Sinha took part in the programme at Eedulapalem. ITDA-Paderu Project Officer V. Abhishek and other officials attended the inaugural at Liganda.
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Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the government had set up nearly 400 mobile towers in the Agency area since June last. The newly inaugurated towers would provide connectivity in 944 habitations with a population of over two lakh, the Chief Minister said.
He said there were plans to install 2,900 towers at a cost of ₹3,100 crore to provide mobile connectivity in nearly 5,500 habitations.
Sharing her experience, a tribal woman, O. Chitamma, said that earlier they used to face severe connectivity issues, and that the new towers would help address them.