Connectivity woes: PMO responds, Attur church gets mobile tower

Attur St Lawrence Minor Basilica now has mobile connectivity following the direction issued by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to the Telecom Department.

Parish Priest Fr George D'Souza told DH that as the shrine is away from the main city, there was a problem of connectivity and especially during the festivals, the telephone connectivity was a huge bane. He said he had repeatedly requested the panchayat and all the elected representatives, but in vain.

In August, he had also requested Union Minister of Telecommunications Manoj Sinha through mail to provide a mobile tower to ease the problem. However, there was no response.

The shrine situated at Nitte, around five to six kilometers away from Karkala, witnesses huge downpour of devotees during the annual feast celebrations.

Following the negligence from all quarters, Fr George decided to try his luck one last time by writing to the PMO on September 2 and posted a letter on September 3.

He received the response stating that action will be taken immediately on September 9. Subsequently, BSNL Mangaluru division head Ravi, on September 20, wrote a letter to the parish priest in which he assured to install a micro mobile BTS tower in the area.

Currently, a temporary mobile tower has been installed near the shrine and a permanent tower will be installed by January-end, the priest said.

He said he is happy about the speedy reply and action from the prime minister. He said that the two landline phones which were dead for six months have been repaired and optical fibre cables have been laid for the permanent tower.