The Indian government on Monday allocated  Rs.14,200 crore for telecom infrastructure that entails completion of optical fibre cable-based network for defence services, rolling out broadband in 2.2 lakh panchayats and improving mobile services in the North East.

As part of annual budgetary support, the government had approved  Rs. 24,664 crore for an advanced communications network for defence services in lieu of their vacating spectrum for mobile telephony in May 2018. The project was to be completed within 24 months, PTI reported.

The Finance Ministry has earmarked an outlay of  Rs. 5,200 crore to rollout the entire optical fibre cable required for setting up the defence communications network

A provision has been made to install 600 mobile towers for 4G services in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam and another 600 mobile towers for 4G in Meghalaya.

It is expected that these initiatives will give a push to PM Modi’s dream of Digital India.