FM urges companies to bring in more investment for state

Assuring that the state government will provide all sort of support to telecom service providers, the state Finance Minister Amit Mitra on Monday urged the companies to bring in more investment for the state. 

He was speaking at a programme where the telecom major Vodafone has launched its 4G services for Kolkata. 

Mitra said investment was yielding good result in West Bengal and the state government was always ready to extend all help in terms of policy and processes for the investors in the telecom sector. 

He said different departments of the state government used the Push Based SMS System for better connectivity among officials and at the same time to convey various messages to common people. Around 20 crore SMSs have been generated through this system. 

Stating that the state government gives priority to the mobile-governance, Mitra said: “In the state we have 7 crore mobile connectivity and that the government will look into how to use 4G service for the same.” 

It may be mentioned that Vodafone has invested Rs 986 crore in West Bengal this year. 

Naveen Chopra, Chief Operating Officer, Vodafone India, said Kolkata was the first metropolitan city in the country where the service provider launched its 4G services which will also be launched in Mumbai, Delhi and Bengaluru soon. 

The service in Mumbai, Delhi and Banglaore is expected to get launched within a month. 

The telecom service provider has already launched its 4G services in Kerala and Karnataka. 

He said initially the 4G service in Kolkata will be available in areas including Alipore, Park Street, BBD Bag, Ballygunge, Salt Lake Sector V, Eastern Metropolitan Bypass and the Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport. 

The work to launch the service in other parts of the city will be completed in phases within June 2016.  

Chopra said they have plans to launch 4G services in other parts of the country and the company will bid for spectrum.