Calcutta, Oct. 4 :    Calcutta, Oct. 4:  Calcutta Telephones is all set to launch its cellular services this Puja. Union minister of state for telecommunications Tapan Sikdar held a meeting with telecom officials on Thursday to give finishing touches to the tariff structure. According to chief general manager of Calcutta Telephones, S.P. Chakraborty, the utility has commissioned 65 base stations across the city. The telephone authorities expect to cover the city and its suburbs. About a dozen base stations are in Jadavpur, Sonarpur and Baruipur. According to sources, there is a probability that Calcutta Telephones will begin its cellular operations before the Pujas. The authorities said the telecom utility has made 'immediate' provisions to market 5,000 SIM cards of various denominations. The minister is expected to make an announcement on Friday. According to senior telephone officials, the utility will operate with the same Global System for Mobile (GSM) technology used by private cellular operators. 'A subscriber can use any GSM handset available in the market and instal our SIM card,'' an official said. The utility has set up different rate structures, which includes cash card, where a subscriber can buy talking time of a certain denomination valid for a particular period. The authorities said the USP of the utility's cellular service would be its 'reach, affordability and service.'' 'The network will cover areas such as Baruipur, Sonarpur and beyond Amtala on the southern fringes of the city and Kalyani, Howrah and well past Chinsurah in Hooghly,'' R.K. Mishra, area manager of Jadavpur Telephone Exchange, said. Calcutta Telephones authorities cited two reasons, which enabled them to market the SIM cards at competitive prices. 'We are not required to pay the licence fee and there is no need for widescale advertisements, like private operators,'' an official said. Chakraborty said the cards would be available from the commercial offices of 31 telephone exchanges across the city. 'We are in the process of opening teleshops in these exchanges and SIM cards will be available from there,'' he added. The trial run has been successful. When asked whether 65 base stations will be sufficient to cover such a huge area - considering private operators have commissioned more than 100 base stations - officials said they have checked to find the stations sufficient to cover the areas.