AGARTALA, August 14 (TIWN): Despite several persuasions by the state government the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had failed to restore the current situation of the poor BSNL services across the state so far. The Tripura Legislative Assembly had recently criticised the BSNL authorities for poor service which irked the consumers at large. Currently the BSNL has at least 2. 86 lakh consumers in the state. The state Information and Technology (IT) official said that despite the state government had taken up the matter with the higher authorities on several occasions the situation could not be brought restored so far.

The state government had always been in favour of upgradation of the service, the official said. Currently BSNL has 89 telephone exchanges across the state with at least 2.86 lakh consumers.

The assembly recently also lashed out at the BSNL authorities for frequent disruption in services and said that trade and commerce, work in government offices and services in the educational institutions were suffering because of inefficient network.

The BSNL official in this regard had clarified that the authority is looking into the matter and are on a move to intensify the network services in the state. The official said, “The BSNL has come up to intensify the telecommunication service in the north eastern states including the land-locked state of Tripura.”

The BSNL had broadened its service in different parts of the state and are currently putting its hard effort to provide GSM-powered services as well, he said. “We had already talked to the state government here, taking the stock of the situation and several meetings were held in this regard.”

The official wished not to mention name said that there are many gaps found in the capital city here due to some private firms which had intensified their services here, but despite all odds the BSNL is also putting its best effort to improve the service.

However, it is to be mentioned here that BSNL is augmenting its mobile network by installing additional 14,421 2G mobile sites and 10,605 3G sites with an estimated investment of Rs. 4,804 crores. Besides, aiming to make Tripura a part of 'Digital India' initiatives to connect rural areas with high speed internet, the BSNL would work out a road map for the same, he said.

Besides, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has inked an agreement with Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL) to improve Internet connectivity in India’s northeast region.

As per the agreement the BSNL will provide international bandwidth for Internet from Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh to Agartala, while the BSCCL will provide the international port (IP) transit service from Cox’s Bazar Cable Landing Station. The official said, “The work for laying the optical fibres in Agartala part is currently under progress.”

The Bangladesh Telecommunications Company has to lay optical fibre cable (OFC) of the 30 km approximate distance from Brahmanbaria to Akhaura, which adjoins India’s Tripura, while the BSNL will set up international long distance (ILD) gateway at Agartala along with associated equipment.