Infrastructure

According to officials familiar with the exercise, the Department of Telecommunications is gathering information from telecom service providers on behalf of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The assessment is intended to provide the government with a clearer picture of the scale of Chinese-origin legacy equipment still embedded in India’s cellular infrastructure.

The foundation stones for the projects were laid on 29 August 2026 by Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh. The programme forms part of the latest expansion of PMGSY-IV, which is focused on bringing all-weather road connectivity to habitations that remain outside the regular road network, particularly in mountainous and geographically difficult regions.

The light-up was carried out on August 28, 2026, by NMDC Director (Technical) Vinay Kumar and Director (Commercial) Vivek Nishant Nath. NMDC announced the development on August 29, describing it as an important step towards the commissioning and operationalisation of the Nagarnar pelletisation facility.

The change would bring India’s 5G network rules closer to international exposure standards and could allow telecom operators to improve coverage from existing sites while reducing the number of additional towers required for network expansion.

The development centres on the Baigachhi area of Ashoknagar, around 48 kilometres from Kolkata, where ONGC discovered commercially significant hydrocarbons after decades of exploration across the Bengal Basin. Local reporting describes the latest milestone as the commencement of commercial crude production, while ONGC itself has said that its first commercial hydrocarbon discovery in the basin has taken a decisive step towards monetisation.

The project has been developed for Tata Steel Limited through TP Vardhman Surya Limited, a subsidiary of Tata Power Renewable Energy Limited. Designed as a captive renewable-energy installation, the facility will supply clean electricity for Tata Steel’s requirements while supporting the steelmaker’s broader transition towards lower-emission industrial operations.