New Delhi, July 26 (PTI): The government on Thursday gave final approval to the mega merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular, which will create the country's largest mobile telephony operator with a 35 per cent market share and around 430 million subscribers.

The move comes just days after Idea Cellular and Vodafone India made a joint payment of Rs 7,268.78 crore 'under protest' to the Department of Telecom for merging their mobile businesses.

A senior DoT official privy to the development said that the final approval has been accorded to the merger on Thursday and the entities will now approach Registrar of Companies for stipulated filings for approval, completing the last leg of formalities.

The DoT gave conditional clearance to the merger on July 9 and asked the two firms to meet the demand raised for taking the merger on record.