Indus Valley Times

By A Iswar Rao

Malkangiri, April 22: It’s a great piece of news for the people of Malkangiri.  The district will soon have an adequate number of mobile towers to increase the tele-connectivity that would herald new possibilities of socio-economic development in the region.  The district will get as many as 300 new mobile towers, said Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union railways and communications minister, here on Friday.

“More than 500 mobile towers have been sanctioned for Koraput and over 300 towers are to be set up in Malkangiri to increase connectivity. I will review this development work. Besides, I will also take stock of the newly set up post offices in these districts,” he said.

The minister was on a one-day trip to South Odisha to oversee the progress of various railway projects being executed in the region.

Malkangiri, Koraput, Nabarangpur and Rayagada district are still having some presence of the outlawed CPI (Maoist) activists. Inadequate mobile connectivity often works in favour of these elements as it affects exchange of information among the state police and para-military forces deployed in the areas. Besides, weak network connectivity in these tribal-dominated districts also witnessed school and college students getting deprived of virtual mode of teaching during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Of the 613,192 population of Malkangiri, 57.83 per cent are tribals.

The minister urged the Odisha government to resolve issues related to land acquisition in some of the districts so that construction of tracks and other development activities can be expedited.

“The expedition of the delayed railway projects in Odisha depends upon land acquisition by the state government on a priority basis. Final location of the project also depends upon the land acquisition,” said Vaishnaw on Friday following a ground visit to Koraput and Malkangiri districts.

Vaishnaw was accorded a guard of honour following his arrival at Koraput railway station by a special train from Visakhapatnam.

Subsequently, the minister visited Malkangiri and took stock of the proposed Junagarh – Nabarangpur, Nabarangpur-Jeypore-Malkangiri and Malkangiri- Bhadrachalam railway projects.

“These railway projects were long-standing demands of the local people. I have discussed various issues pertaining to the developmental projects,” said Vaishnaw.