The government will invest Rs 5,000 crore to set up over 8,000 telecom towers in northeastern region.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications and Information Technology, said improving telecom connectivity in the north east is one of the top priorities of the government.
Telecom Commission had cleared the proposal a few days ago.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had last year recommended an investment plan to improve services in north east India, PTI reported.
The TRAI recommended a 2 percent discount on annual license fees for telecom operators that cover at least 80 percent of habitations with a population of 250 and subsidies for installation of solar power units at telecom towers.
The Indian regulator also recommended investments to provide seamless connectivity across national highways in the north east region covering Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
State-run companies BSNL and Power Grid Corporation of India recently signed an agreement to improve telecom connectivity in the region.
The Telecom Commission has approved the long-pending project of installing mobile towers in nine Naxal-hit states, for which BSNL had submitted an estimate of Rs 3,241 crore, which was higher than Rs 3,046 crore approved by the Cabinet.
The project will be placed before the Cabinet for final approval.
