Telecom sector asks govt for priority fuel, power supply amid West Asia crisis

Mint has seen, was also marked to petroleum secretary Neeraj Mittal.According to Singh, the continued stoppage of LPG and liquefied natural gas (LNG) supplies to tower manufacturing units is likely to adversely impact the telecom tower manufacturing supply chain and may lead to delays in ongoing and planned tower rollout activities. “This could consequently affect efforts aimed at strengthening telecom networks and expanding connectivity, particularly in uncovered and capacity-constrained areas,” he said.In an order dated 5 March, the petroleum ministry directed all public-sector OMCs to ensure that LPG procured is supplied and marketed only to consumers of domestic LPG.

Mint reported on 6 March that India had only about 25 days of LPG stock. Annual demand stands at 33.15 million tonnes, with imports servicing about 75-80% of this.

LPG is produced from propane and butane, which are byproducts of crude oil and natural gas processing.In a post on X on 9 March, the petroleum ministry said, “In light of current geopolitical disruptions to fuel supply and constraints on supply of LPG, the ministry has issued orders to oil refineries for higher LPG production and using such extra production for domestic LPG use.” It added, “For LPG supply to other non-domestic sectors, a committee of three EDs of OMCs have been constituted to review the representations for LPG supply to restaurants/hotels/other industries.”Mobile towers are the backbone of telecom connectivity, and uninterrupted availability of essential inputs for telecom infrastructure manufacturing is important to ensure timely deployment of telecom networks and continued expansion of connectivity. As of 9 March, there were 854,065 telecom towers installed across the