Question : Telephone Exchanges

(a) whether the District Telephone Authorities have not been able to provide the telephone connections to the consumers on demand in various telephone districts in many States;

(b) if so, the details thereof, State-wise including Maharashtra and the action taken by the Government in this regard;

(c) the funds allocated for expansion and speeding up telecom facilities in various States, State-wise;

(d) the details of waiting list for telephone connections in various telephone exchanges, State-wise; and

(e) the steps taken by the Government to clear the wait list at all the exchanges and the action taken to modernize the telephone exchanges, State-wise?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) & (b) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is providing telephone connections to its customers on demand in the technically feasible areas in all the Telecom Circles in the country including Maharashtra.

(c) Capital expenditure funds allocated by BSNL for expansion and speeding up telecom facilities in various circles for the FY 2015-16 are given circle wise in Annexure-I.

(d) & (e) The waiting list of BSNL for wireline telephones circle-wise is as per Annexure-II and it makes the technically non-feasible areas as feasible based on its techno-commercial considerations. To modernize the exchanges, BSNL has planned for replacement / migration of Legacy Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Next Generation Network (NGN).

Annexure-I

Circle wise details of Capital expenditure funds allocated for expansion and speeding up telecom facilities for the FY 2015-16 by BSNL

<pre>
S.
No. Name of Circle Capital expenditure funds allocated for expansion (in Rs crore)
1 Andaman and Nicobar 22.82
2 Andhra Pradesh 412.17
3 Assam 117.70
4 Bihar 200.85
5 Chhattisgarh 98.91
6 Gujarat 275.18
7 Haryana 163.94
8 Himachal Pradesh 108.33
9 Jammu and Kashmir 99.42
10 Jharkhand 173.42
11 Karnataka 405.25
12 Kerala 584.11
13 Madhya Pradesh 246.57
14 Maharashtra 397.83
15 North East-I 266.08
16 North East-II
17 Odisha 296.18
18 Punjab 295.79
19 Rajasthan 309.94
20 Tamilnadu 523.94
21 Uttarakhand 79.41
22 Uttar Pradesh (East) 577.21
23 Uttar Pradesh (West)
24 West Bengal 431.22
25 Other units and reserve 1709.76
TOTAL 7796.03
</pre>
Annexure-II
Circle wise waiting list of BSNL for wireline telephones
<pre>
S.
No. Name of Circle Waiting List
1 Andaman and Nicobar 00
2 Andhra Pradesh 258
3 Assam 00
4 Bihar 00
5 Chhattisgarh 595
6 Gujarat 719
7 Haryana 3075
8 Himachal Pradesh 175
9 Jammu and Kashmir 1014
10 Jharkhand 00
11 Karnataka 10084
12 Kerala 253
13 Madhya Pradesh 2900
14 Maharashtra 16448
15 North East-I 00
16 North East-II 00
17 Odisha 00
18 Punjab 279
19 Rajasthan 5493
20 Tamilnadu 08
21 Uttarakhand 125
22 Uttar Pradesh (East) 4163
23 Uttar Pradesh (West) 903
24 West Bengal 00
</pre>

***************