Unveiling an aggressive expansion plan, telecom major Bharti Tele-Ventures on Monday said it would invest Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) during 2004-05 to cover more than 2,300 towns by March next year.

The new plan includes Bharti rolling out its mobile services in six more circles -- Jammu and Kashmir, UP-East, West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan, the company's president (mobility) Manoj Kohli told reporters in Bangalore.

He said AirTel mobile telephone services would be extended to 1,000 new towns during 2004-05, out of which 300 would be added in the six new circles.

The Rs 2,000 crore investment would be made on scaling up network and call handling capacity, as well as on doubling the cell sites from 5,000 to around 10,000 across the country, among other things, Kohli said.

The company said the network capacity would be scaled up to cater to more than 11 million subscribers and network would be made capable of handling 4 billion call minutes per month from the current level of 2 billion.

By March next year, mobile connectivity would be provided to 20,000 new villages, taking their total number to 60,000, he said, adding 18 additional mobile switching centres would be installed taking the total count to 53.