Connectivity to be extended into the shadow areas of Jammu

By: Musaib Iqbal MK

Srinagar

Recently J&K administration has taken up the matter with the different telecom authorities so that in the Jammu province some shadow areas which are still not connected get the internet facilities.

Divisional Commissioner Jammu said that the government has decided to develop many new tourist destinations in the Jammu region and most of them have either no or very poor mobile connectivity.

He said that to facilitate telecom connectivity in far flung border areas was the top priority of Jammu and Kashmir administration and said that very soon these areas will get the connectivity.

According to the news agencies in their reports about the taking up of internet connectivity in some far off areas of Jammu province, Divisional Commissioner, Jammu, Raghav Langer said the government has planned to develop several new tourist destinations in all the districts of Jammu division and the deputy commissioners have shared a list of such locations that have poor mobile connectivity.

“There were specific directions from the office of the Lt Governor to facilitate the development of infrastructure of telecom companies to improve/provide better mobile connectivity,” Langer said, chairing a meeting of regional heads of mobile service provider companies, to review the action plan formulated by them to provide and improve mobile connectivity in Jammu division.

“The need of mobile/internet connectivity was felt during the ongoing (Coronavirus) pandemic as the schools are providing education through online mode and many far flung areas, especially hilly districts faced this problem and the government is planning to break all these barriers,” Langer said.

He directed the deputy commissioners to appoint nodal officers at district and sub-division level to coordinate with the service providers to facilitate the work on the telecom projects.

The mobile service providers informed the authorities about files of ”No Objection Certificates” pending at different levels, an official spokesman said.

Under the ”J&K Communication and Connectivity Infrastructure Policy- 2020”, deputy commissioners have been assigned the task of granting time bound permissions and resolve issues.

The policy provides for dispute resolution mechanisms also between mobile service providers and private persons.

Some files are lying with the defense authorities for approval, the spokesman said.

As per DoT guidelines requisite approvals are required from concerned local military authorities for erection of towers within 10 kms of border fencing.

Langer directed the concerned officers to expedite the process and resolve all pending files if the service providers meet the security parameters to ensure connectivity in border areas.

He also instructed the service providers to share the updated list of the pending cases with the concerned deputy commissioners so that the process can be expedited.

With inputs from Agencies