All districts to have BSNL mobile by March 2004

All districts in the country will be provided BSNL mobile facility by March 31, 2004, Information Technology and Communications and Minister Pramod Mahajan informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Responding to supplementaries during the Question Hour, he said at present 201 districts in the country were without Cellular Mobile Telephone Service.

Mahajan said government operators like Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam had been granted CMTS licences covering the entire country.

The government operators have made plans to cover all the districts with CMTS by 2003-04, he said adding private cellular operators have individual plans to cover their respective licensed service areas.

Replying to another question, Mahajan said cellular phone services would be made available in parts of Jammu and Kashmir (Jammu to Katra and Vaishnodevi shrine and Srinagar town) from Baishakhi Day on April 14 next year.

He said because of security reasons, cellular services were not available in Jammu and Kashmir. But after the Cabinet Committee on Security gave the permission two months back, steps have been initiated in this regard.

The minister said till November this year, 226 districts spread over 18 states had been included in the BSNL mobile service coverage.