GUWAHATI, INDIA: The central government has decided on a massive plan to upgrade and boost telecommunications facilities in insurgency-hit and border areas in the northeast, a sharp contrast to New Delhi's earlier stand of not diversifying communication facilities in such areas.

"We are now laying special emphasis and focus on setting up mobile towers and other communications facilities in the insurgency hit northeastern states and also in border areas," Minister of State for Communication and Technology Sachin Pilot said here on Tuesday.

"This would help us bringing our own people closer to us, rather than trying to keep them away."

The minister said the central government was committed to boosting telecom facilities in the northeast in a massive way.

"We want to further improve infrastructure and provide finances for teleservices availability in every village for every Indian to feel part of the telecommunication revolution," Pilot told journalists.

The minister also reviewed the progress of information Technology (IT) schemes and projects in the northeast.

He later inaugurated Wimax service, a wireless broadband facility, at Chaygaon on the outskirts of Guwahati.

"This Wimax service was launched just two months ago and now we have decided to introduce this service in Assam where people staying in a radius of 15 km can access internet service easily," Pilot said.

"Very soon this service would be expanded to other parts of the state, an attempt to bring about IT revolution in rural Assam."

©IANS