Indus Towers bags NDMC deal to make Delhi a wi-fi city

NEW DELHI: The world’s largest telecom tower company, Indus Towers, has bagged a tender from the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC), as per which it will invest Rs 220 crore jointly with telecom operators to equip 3,000 Street Lamp Poles with CCTV, Wi-Fi, Optical Fibre and LED lights across three years.

“This entails digital network set up by way of street lamps across the NDMC area. This is in line with the Chief Minister’s plans for a Wi-Fi enabled Delhi. The project covers 18,500 street light poles set up in the entire NDMC area and will see at least 3,000 poles equipped with 2G/3G/4G spread across a span of three years, with target of 1,000 poles each year,” a release said.

The poles will additionally be upgraded with LED lights (consuming lesser energy), CCTV cameras (for video surveillance), Wi-Fi access points (to cover all road lengths) and optical fibre networks (to backhaul the telecom traffic) as well.

BS Shantharaju, Chief Executive Officer, Indus Towers, said, “We are very pleased with this development. Indus Towers, strongly believes in its philosophy of ‘Putting India First’. We will continue to work with NDMC and all other authorities to create a robust and efficient NextGen digital services network with maximum ease and optimum costs. Connecting Lutyen’s Delhi with NextGen technologies will be a step further in our Vision of transforming lives by enabling communication.”

In order to execute this large project of 3,000 2G/3G/4G enabled poles, Indus will be setting up a project management team in consultation with the NDMC authority and the telecom operators to install robust outdoor equipment in weather-proof and tamper-proof casing, ensuring low maintenance and security.

Indus Towers and partner telecom operators will be investing around Rs 220 crore over three years to build this digital layout for the entire NDMC area. The project will help create common infrastructure which can be shared by multiple telecom operators to provide their mobile and broadband services to citizens of Delhi.