Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, Brigadier (Dr) BD Mishra (Retd) convened a meeting at Raj Niwas on October 10 and discussed the implementation of the saturation project of installation of 4G towers in uncovered areas of Ladakh under Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

At the outset, LG inquired from the BSNL officials about the reason for the delay in issuing the authorization letter to the contractor to commence the work so that the installation of mobile towers in wildlife/protected areas could be carried out for the benefit of the people of Ladakh residing in uncovered areas of the region.

General Manager, BSNL Leh, informed that the fee for land diversion purposes of all the 65 wildlife/forest sites has already been deposited and the other formalities would soon be processed by them and the authorization letter would be issued from the BSNL JK Circle Office to the contractor.

MP Ladakh, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, requested the LG to allot funds for connecting villages with Jio sites with fibre.

Executive Councillor, LAHDC Leh, Tashi Namgyal Yakzee, and Councillor, Chushul, Konchok Stanzin, requested the LG to provide telecommunication connectivity in Hanley and Korzok as both these areas have emerged as tourist attractions.

Shehzan Hameed from Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited gave a detailed presentation about the functioning of Jio in UT Ladakh. He informed that Jio has covered 68% population of Ladakh across 131 villages, with 239 sites even in remote areas such as Demchok, Siachen, and Zanskar. He also informed that 75% of the sites have been connected with fibre as against less than 50% across all operations in India.

Shehzan informed that the Jio network in Ladakh has triple protection as the fibre routes are on Srinagar-Leh, Gurez-Leh and Leh-Manali so that there is no issue of connectivity even if one of these lines breaks down. He informed about the introduction of the Raman Amplifier technology on the Leh-Manali route- a first in India. He further informed that Jio has 60 USOF site scope covering 57 villages as radiating sites while work on three sites- Thanga Changthang, Chumur Tegazong, and Shun-Shadey- are on hold and shared the issues faced by them in carrying out work in these areas, especially Shun-Shadey.

Commending Shehzan and the team for their track record and also for completing various telecommunication projects in Ladakh, LG asked Shehzan to prioritize mobile telecommunications in two areas, i.e. the border areas such as Galwan and uncovered villages such as Phobrang in Durbuk sub-division for the ease and convenience of the people residing in those areas as these areas are still uncovered by mobile towers. LG stated that the UT Administration’s motto is to provide telecommunication connectivity to every citizen of Ladakh. He asked the Jio representatives to complete the project work in Shun-Shadey and other areas at the earliest.