Spectrum sale, rail projects of ₹12,300 crore get Cabinet nod

New Delhi: The Union cabinet on Thursday approved auction of 10,523 MHz of telecom spectrum in multiple bands, including 5G, and aims to mop up ₹96,317.65 crore, minister for information and broadcasting Anurag Thakur said.

Auctions will take place in the 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, 2500, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands, and the telecom department will use indexation on previous auction price to determine auction price for the sale, which he said will take place in the coming months.

“Additional spectrum will improve the quality of telecom services and coverage for the consumers,” the government said in a statement, following the cabinet meeting. According to the statement, spectrum held by certain companies undergoing insolvency is expiring in 2024 on completion of the term, and that will also be put on the block.

Mint reported last month that the government was expecting at the most ₹10,000 crore from the upcoming spectrum auctions, since telcos would focus primarily on renewing licences that are set to expire between February and August this year. The pricier 600 Mhz and 700 Mhz bands have not been made part of the sale this time.

The planned auctions will be a tame affair compared to the previous bids in 2022, when the government amassed a record ₹1.5 trillion when it put on sale 72,097.85 MHz units of spectrum and sold 5G airwaves for the first time. Since the spectrum sale in 2022, more than 130 million subscribers are using 5G services, making India the world’s second-largest 5G ecosystem.

The cabinet also approved reserving an additional 5MHz spectrum in the 700 MHz band for the railways for national rollout of Kavach, over the earlier assigned 5 MHz for the automatic train protection system. “This will improve passenger safety and operations of these transportation systems,” the government said.

Meanwhile, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved six rail projects worth ₹12,343 crore. These projects, to be funded by the Centre, will ease travel, minimize logistics cost, reduce oil imports and lower carbon emissions.

The six projects will cover 18 districts across six states - Rajasthan, Assam, Telangana, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Nagaland. The projects are expected to increase the existing network of Indian Railways by 1,020 kms. This expansion programme is also aimed at providing employment to nearly 3 crore man-days to the people of these states.

The cabinet also approved extension of Fisheries Infrastructure Development Fund (FIDF) for another 3 years within the already approved fund size of ₹7,522.48 crore and budgetary support of ₹939.48 crore. Extension of FIDF will intensify development of various fisheries infrastructure like fishing harbours, fish-landing centres, ice plants, cold storage, fish transport facilities, integrated cold chain, and modern fish markets.

The government had created the Fisheries and Aquaculture Infrastructure Development Fund in 2018-19 to bolster infrastructure in the fisheries sector. In the earlier phase of implementation of FIDF during 2018-19 to 2022-23, a total 121 infrastructure projects at an investment of about Rs. 5,589 crore were approved.

The cabinet also approved Pradhan Mantri Matsya Kisan Samridhi Sah-Yojana (PM-MKSSY), a central sub-scheme under the Pradhan Mantri Matsya Sampada, for formalization of the fisheries sector and supporting the micro and small enterprises with an investment of over Rs. 6,000 crore over four years from FY24 to FY27 in all states and Union territories.

This will create a national fisheries digital platform to provide 40 lakh small and micro-enterprises work-based identities, gradual formalization of the fisheries sector and enhanced access to institutional credit. The initiative will also support 6.4 lakh micro-enterprises and 5,500 fisheries cooperatives, enabling them to access institutional credit.