DoT to seek Cabinet approval for 2,200 green towers

NEW DELHI, INDIA: It seems that, after much ado, the government has at least literally taken up green cause. The telecom department, with recommendation from the home ministry, bats for hybrid-energy driven 2,200 new mobile towers to facilitate secured wireless communication between the security agencies.

These towers would be brought up at a cost of Rs 3,046 crore in India's Maoist and Naxal infested regions that include north-east and eastern coastal states such as Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, West Bengal and Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking to CIOL, additional secretary at Ministry of Communications and IT and USO Fund administrator N Ravi Shanker said that keeping environment into account, they are contemplating Cabinet approval for 2,200 towers on hybrid energy resources.

Shankar informed that the regions have already been identified by the Ministry of Home Affairs. "We are tabling proposal for 2,200 green towers to be put up at an indicative cost of Rs 3,046 crore, in extremist-affected areas," he said.

"We are still in the internal discussions phase, and the proposal will soon be sent to the Cabinet. We are asking that these towers should be put onto hybrid solution so that solar energy could be leveraged," informed Shanker.

Given the task of half-a-million existing towers posturing fuel deficit, the senior official, said that it's too early to spell out USO Fund roadmap, although he pointed out at a possibility of partial funding so that a viability gap could be met in turning them onto alternate energy resources.

As a part of inter-ministerial discussions, especially with the MNRE, Shanker said, that there is a need to pool resources. This, he believes could also help meet telecom watchdog TRAI mandate for turning 20 per cent of urban towers and 50 per cent in rural regions onto hybrid power resources by 2015.