LEH: Seven months after it amended the rules, the union government is giving final contours to its ambitious plan to enhance the telecom infrastructure in the border areas of Ladakh and other parts of the country, amidst the heightened tensions along the Line of Actual Control with China.
As many as 1000 border outposts and intelligence posts will be benefitted with strong 4G connectivity in the border areas, with the total cost of the project pegged at Rs 2000 crore.
“The proposal to install 4G towers at the paramilitary manned outposts is in the final stage of discussion and would soon be taken to the Cabinet for final approval,” said a senior official.
The move has come even as the union government last week decided to pace up the infrastructure projects along the border with China in Ladakh, and other parts of the country, in a high-level meeting chaired by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and attended by Ladakh Lieutenant Governor Brigadier B D Mishra.
In another meeting last week, Ashwini Vaishnaw, the union minister of Communications and Electronics & Information Technology had discussed in detail with LG Mishra and Member of Parliament from Ladakh Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the plans to provide impetus to the telecommunications in the union territory of Ladakh.
The Earth News had reported that the meeting largely focussed around enhancing the communication and connectivity, as India gears up to put up a strong security apparatus in place amid the heightened tensions with China, along the Line of Actual Control.
Official sources informed that the plan to enhance telecom connectivity in border areas of Ladakh is aimed at providing the Indian troops stationed there better connectivity services. “As of now, the paramilitary personnel had to resort to using satellite phones in the border areas because of poor to no connectivity. Not to mention, some locals in other parts of the country were also found using the SIM cards of foreign telecom operators. With this project, the army personnel in the area would be able to get strong connectivity services, and the locals won’t have to depend on foreign telecom operators for basic calling and data services,” they said.
“Besides the infrastructure creation and upgradation, the focus is being laid on bolstering the surveillance apparatus of the Army by enhancing connectivity,” they added.
The move has come 7 months after the union government amended the Unified License agreement. Until August 2022, telecom infra installation within 10 km of the border was mostly barred and required approval from the armed forces to be set up. The amendment allowed setting up of mobile towers up to almost 500 metres off the border.
The latest developments came in view of the anticipated spike in the tensions in Ladakh along the LAC. The Chinese attempts to unilaterally alter the status quo along the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh starting from April-May 2020 has seriously disturbed the peace and tranquillity in border areas and impacted overall ties, even as Chinese President Xi Jinping vowed to build China’s military into a “Great Wall of steel” to protect the its sovereignty and developmental interests, earlier this month.
While China has already ensured strong network connectivity for its troops along the border, the Indian troops were waiting for the same, even as many new border outposts have been added in Ladakh, and Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh after the 2020 Galwan clashes in eastern Ladakh.
The eastern Ladakh border row erupted on May 5, 2020, following a violent clash in the Pangong lake area. The ties between the two countries nosedived significantly following the fierce clash in the Galwan Valley in June 2020 that marked the most serious military conflict between the two sides in decades. The Chinese attempts, it may be mentioned, were invariably met with an appropriate response from Indian armed forces in Ladakh, as well as in other parts of the country along the border with China.
