To connect remote areas,PPP model turns to mobile phone towers

Viom,which has over 38,000 towers,plans to roll out nearly 20,000-25,000 additional towers in the next two years. Small facilities have been built around the mobile towers to cater to different services. While one cabin houses an ATM,others house Internet facilities,solar lamps etc. There are also cabins that have cold storage for vaccines and medicines.

Officials said part of the fuel needed for running the mobile towers will be saved and used to operate these services. At the same time,solar panels have also been set up to power these facilities. There are also facilities for charging solar lamps and provision of borewell water.

A senior project official said,“This will bring different departments together under one roof. The infrastructure — mobile towers have been provided by us. The PPP model with the government will help procure the facilities like medical utilities,banking services and others at one place. We are also looking to providing employment to locals through these centres. As there are a huge number of such towers,the scope of providing basic amenities to remote areas increases manifold,” he said.

Minister of Communications and Information Technology Kapil Sibal said,“In the next couple of months,a proper module will be worked out so that things can be expedited. Matters like the type of business module,user charges,permanent structures and others need to be worked upon. The telecom infrastructure sector offers a tremendous untapped potential that can be leveraged to enhance various government programmes and initiatives in rural India.”

The centre inaugurated on Monday will have a range of additional services such as phone recharging points,rural cyber cafés,utility payments (power,water,telecom bills),travel bookings,mobile top-up facilities etc,which will enhance entrepreneurial opportunities for the local youth.

Another facility that will greatly benefit the rural population is the ‘information display board’ — a LED screen that will display updated real-time information in local languages on various rural programmes like weather monitoring,mandi rates,immunisation drives and others.

Arun Kapur,CEO of Viom Networks,was also present at the function.