BSNL to connect 9924 NE villages with VPTs

Shillong, Aug 28 (UNI) Altogether 9924 villages across the North Eastern states would be connected with the rest of the world through Village Public Telephones (VPTs) shortly.

The Department of Telecom Services has already provided VPTs to about 54700 uncovered villages in the country under the Bharat Nirman Programme.

In North Eastern states, the Union government has provided 9924 villages with VPT facilities under each telecom circle till June 2008. They are Assam (8673 VPTs), North East-I (440), Meghalaya NE-I (311), Mizoram NE-I (60), Tripura NE-I (69), North East-II (811), Arunachal Pradesh NE-II (285), Manipur NE-II (507) and Nagaland NE-II (19).

The target under Bharat Nirman was to provide subsidized public telephone facility to 66822 uncovered villages. The remaining VPTs are likely to be provided by the end of the current year, a BSNL official today said.

He said the scheme covers all villages except those having population of less than 100, those lying in deep forests and those affected with insurgency.

UNI RRK PC RD 1429