Calcutta, Jan. 31: The US-based Astonfield group will invest Rs 400 crore to build towers for rural telephony and WiMax service in Siliguri. This foreign direct investment will be the first of its kind in Bengal in rural telephony.

“We will build towers all across the country starting with Bengal. In the next one-and-a-half years, 1,000 towers will be constructed, while over a lakh will come up in the next three years,” said Sourabh Sen, director of Astonfield Management.

Subsidiary Astonfield Tower Communication will implement the project. Astonfield is also in talks with two companies from the US, one each in the UK and Australia for a partner in the tower project. It hopes to shortlist a partner by the end of March.

“We had been requested by the Bengal government to do something in rural telephony in north Bengal and hence we will flag off our tower business from this state,” Sen added.

The US-based group will invest Rs 6,000 crore in various rural projects through public-private partnerships. These include a plan to develop clean energy in India in the next five to 10 years. The first three renewable energy projects will be located in Bengal — a Rs 60-crore 10MW biomass project in Gangarampur, a Rs 100-crore 5MW solar photovoltaic plant in Bankura and a Rs 8-crore 1MW manure-to-power project in Kalyani.