Mrunal Manmay Dash

Phulbani: After facing numerous problems owing to poor mobile network, residents of Dadaki GP in Phulbani block of Kandhamal district erected a mobile tower on their own.

Earlier, seamless mobile network and connectivity was a distant dream for the residents of Dadaki Gram Panchayat, which is located some six to seven kms away from Phulbani Town.

Local residents informed that mobile service providers were earlier reluctant to set up towers owing to cost and other factors.

The villagers constructed the mobile tower using over 60 to 70 old pipes used for digging bore wells. With little help from the community, all the issues relating to mobile network were resolved after BSNL installed a Micro BTS (Base Transceiver Station) on the tower.

"We had never thought that we could construct a mobile tower using discarded old pipes. BSNL authorities had earlier denied us a mobile tower citing feasibility issues," said Krushna Chandra Sahu, a Gram Rojgar Sevak.

Sanjay Mallik, a local resident was too upbeat about the achievement of the villagers. He said, "We have erected a 60 feet high mobile tower. The electricity department was also generous in restoring power supply."

Trinath Panda, a senior official of BSNL (Phulbani circle) said, "We installed Micro BTS there to resolve the issues pertaining to mobile network within a radius of 2.5 KM. The local villagers and administration helped us a lot."

Panda also informed that the company has plans to setup 50 more such receivers in the district in coming days.

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