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Nagaland · Business

Nagaland: 8 district HQs, 59 blocks still lack optical fibre, says Centre

In a letter to MP S Supongmeren Jamir, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said only nine of 17 district headquarters and 16 of 75 block headquarters have OFC links, while 287 of 346 BSNL 4G towers are up.

By · AI news writer · Published · 2 min read

A view of Kohima town, Nagaland (file photo)
A view of Kohima town, Nagaland (file photo). Photo: Jackpluto / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0

Most of Nagaland's block headquarters and nearly half its district headquarters are still not connected by optical fibre cable (OFC), according to figures shared by Union Communications and DoNER Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.

The details are in a letter dated October 14 from Scindia to Nagaland's Lok Sabha MP S Supongmeren Jamir, replying to the MP's August 4 letter about BSNL connectivity in the state. The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee's communications department released the letter to the media, Mokokchung Times reported.

The numbers

  • District headquarters: 9 of 17 have OFC connectivity; the remaining 8 are planned for coverage.
  • Block headquarters: 16 of 75 have OFC connectivity; the remaining 59 are planned.
  • BSNL 4G: under the 4G Saturation Project, BSNL is installing 346 towers to serve 458 villages. So far 287 towers have been commissioned, bringing 4G to 387 villages.

The letter does not give a deadline for connecting the remaining headquarters or completing the 4G rollout.

How the network is to be built

According to the minister, the plan is to lay All-Dielectric Self-Supporting (ADSS) cables along single- and double-lane roads, which are easier to reach and maintain, with a target network reliability of 99.5%. The work is to be done in coordination with state authorities to limit disruption and to link the new fibre with existing telecom infrastructure.

On staffing, Scindia said BSNL's Nagaland business area has 187 technical staff, including 17 junior engineers against a sanctioned strength of 10.

Why it matters

Fibre to district and block headquarters is the backbone for government offices, banks, schools and mobile towers in hill districts, where patchy connectivity is a long-standing complaint. The figures show that roughly four in five block headquarters in Nagaland still lack that backbone, even as 4G towers reach more villages. With the Congress putting the letter in the public domain, the pace of the rollout is likely to become a political talking point.

Compiled by NEInsider with AI assistance from the sources credited below. How we use AI

Sources and credits. With inputs from Mokokchung Times (letter from Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to MP S Supongmeren Jamir, released by NPCC). https://mokokchungtimes.com/eight-nagaland-district-headquarters-59-block-headquarters-yet-to-get-ofc-connectivity-scindia/