First mobile tower erected at remote CRPF base in Chhattisgarh's Naxal-hit Sukma

Raipur: A remote village in the Naxal-hit Sukma district of Chhattisgarh has got its first mobile phone tower, officials said on Sunday.

The tower, installed inside a Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) camp in Tekulagudem village on Holi, will provide cellular connectivity to a clutch of villages in the interior region, they said.

Tekulagudem was of the first locations where the paramilitary force established a forward operating base in January last year, to undertake specific anti-Maoist operations and help the local administration usher in development works in the area as part of the Union government's declaration to eliminate Left Wing Extremism (LWE) from the country by March 2026.

"A BSNL mobile tower was erected on March 13 inside the Tekulagudem forward operating base of the CRPF, which is operated by its 150th battalion. This is the first such facility in this area," a senior official in the security establishment told PTI.

"The village is located in the interiors of the Naxal violence-hit Sukma district, and shares a border with Bijapur, another LWE-affected village in the Bastar region," he said.

According to another official, the mobile tower will provide the much-needed cellular connectivity to villagers and security personnel in Tekulagudem and the adjoining hamlets of Timmapuram, Jonaguda and Puvarti.

Puvarti is the village of Hidma, the wanted Maoist commander of the first battalion of People's Liberation Guerrilla Army.

According to CRPF officials, the BSNL officials travelled from Sukma headquarters and as far as state capital Raipur (around 600 kilometres) for the ceremony to operationalise the mobile tower switches. The villagers were also invited to the event, which came on the eve of Holi.

A special camp was held on March 13 to distribute SIM cards to the locals and activate them, they said.

The CRPF had established the Tekulagudem forward operating base, under the Jagargunda police station limits, in January 2024. On the day the base was set up, the force lost three of its personnel and 15 personnel were injured, when a fierce encounter broke out as Naxals attacked from multiple directions.

As many as 15 CRPF personnel have been recommended for gallantry medals for this operation, which ended after the force deployed its newly inducted armoured vehicle -- Wheeled Armoured Amphibious Platform -- led by its commander Seikholen Haokip.

Tekulagudem had been a hotbed of Naxal violence. In a 2021 attack here, around 23 security personnel were killed. The importance of this forward operating base is that it has led to the creation of 15 more such CRPF and security bases in the worst violence-affected region of south Bastar, said officials.

The CRPF has created over three dozen such bases in Chhattisgarh over the last few years and it plans to open about 14 more this year, they said.