Set up mobile towers in all villages by March 2024: PM Modi

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday set March 2024 as the deadline for all departments to set up mobile towers in all villages for achieving saturation in mobile phone coverage. Raising concerns over the delay, the PM said while locals may raise objections to building of dams, they will always support setting up of telecom towers to improve communication links.

Chairing a meeting of PM-Pragati , Modi compared construction of dams with the installation of telecom towers after officials cited non-availability of land and remote locations as the reasons for delay.While officials suggested more time was needed to complete the task, the PM suggested that work should be completed by the end of the financial year, a source said. During the first Pragati meeting in nearly four months, the PM flagged concerns over delay in installation of 66 towers in Gujarat.
In order to achieve saturation in mobile phone coverage, the government has created a dedicated website "GatiShakti Sanchar" for centralised Right of Way (RoW) approvals from different agencies.

While reviewing dam and irrigation related projects in Maharashtra and Jharkhand, the PM asked the water resources ministry and states to ensure that while building these projects, they must ensure that canals are also built simultaneously, sources said.

The PMO said that Modi instructed that all the stakeholders executing projects in high population-density urban areas should appoint nodal officers and form teams for better coordination.
For irrigation projects, Modi advised that visits of stakeholders be organised where successful rehabilitation and reconstruction work has been done. He said the transformational impact of such projects may motivate the stakeholders.