No mobile phones to 3 NE States

ITANAGAR, April 17 ? The Centre has not yet given green signal for introduction of mobile telephone in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur due to security reasons, reports PTI. The chief general manager of BSNL, North East II, Krishna Kumar told reporters here Tuesday that BSNL would not introduce mobile phones in Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur as it has not received green signal from the Centre on this issue. However, the internet facilities in the three States would be given further extension in due course of time, he said. Kumar said his department was doing its best to bring Arunachal Pradesh at par with other developed states in the country telecommunically. Though the target for switching capacity for Arunachal Pradesh was 4600 during 2001-02, the department could achieve 10392 capacity with co-operation from all quarters, he said adding the achievement was more than 225 per cent. For the benefit of the customers, BSNL has decided to open telecom service centres with single window facilities like STD, fax, telegrams, internet and making available all types of forms required for various purposes, he said. Kumar on Tuesday inaugurated the new hi-tech OCB 283 exchange here which would provide the facilities like video-conferencing and ISDN for the first time to the people of Itanagar.