On a political warpath with the BJP over the ‘Sanatan Dharma’ controversy, the MK Stalin government is a laggard in the 5G rollout project with the maximum pendency of applications for allowing setting up of 5G infrastructure in the state of Tamil Nadu.
As per the latest details with News18, as many as 11,146 applications for ‘Right of Way’ were pending in Tamil Nadu as of May 19, 2023, with 7,292 of those applications pending for over 90 days. This was almost triple that of the following state with the highest pendency, Rajasthan with 3804 applications, a government report says. With 11,146 pending applications, Tamil Nadu accounts for almost half of the total ROW applications pending across India.
“The situation has not changed much since. Tamil Nadu’s pendency has come down from nearly 18,000 applications as of last year but those pending for over three months have increased. This is hampering progress of 5G rollout,” a senior official said.
As per the report, the Tamil Nadu government is still to give its nod to a ‘Right of Way’ policy in accordance with Indian Telegraph Right of Way (Amendment) Rules 2022, and no timeline has been given for the same by the state. Tamil Nadu is also still to activate the 5G Form on its online portal for 5G rollout, an essential requirement as well.
Uttar Pradesh on Fast Track
The Centre has also asked states to map assets which can be used and retrofitted as street infrastructure for the 5G rollout, like electric poles, government buildings, bus terminals and traffic lights. The report says Uttar Pradesh is in the lead here by mapping 24.6 lakh electric poles in the state. Jharkhand has mapped 245 government buildings, 4.01 lakh electric poles, 53 bus terminals, 70 traffic lights, and 97 bus shelters while 595 bus terminals of Maharashtra have been mapped, as per the report.
Fiberization Project
The Centre is also pressing for fiberization of BTS (base trans receiver stations) — which connects BTS with optical fibre so that BTS can handle more voice and data traffic. This is expected to lead to better quality of service for mobile coverage, higher internet speeds, attract more investments from industry in areas with better coverage and good internet speeds in public institutions like hospitals, government offices and schools etc.
So far, Telangana has performed the best on this count with 41 per cent BTSs connected on fibre while Tamil Nadu has done better on the count with nearly 40.87 per cent coverage as of March 31 this year. The target of the Centre is to achieve 65 per cent fiberization by March 2024.
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