Early Times Report
Jammu, Jan 30: The Jammu and Kashmir government has issued work orders for 775 mobile tower sites to provide 4G mobile connectivity to uncovered and remote villages, particularly in border, hilly and far-flung areas of the Union Territory. Secretary, Information Technology department, Piyush Singla said the project is being implemented under the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) of the Centre, with BSNL as the executing agency.
Singla was briefing the 10th State Broadband Committee meeting, chaired by chief secretary Atal Dulloo here on Thursday, an official spokesman said.
He said the meeting was convened to review the status of key digital infrastructure initiatives, including 4G saturation project, Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP), 5G readiness, Call Before You Dig (CBuD) and other allied telecom projects being implemented across J-K.
The secretary said land has already been allotted at all 775 identified locations, and power supply has been extended to most sites with the support of the Power Development Department (PDD).
The chief secretary asked implementing agencies to further pace up installation and commissioning works, particularly for the 269 sites targeted for completion by March 31, and to fast-track approvals for the remaining locations.
The meeting also reviewed the status of border village saturation, covering 1,421 border villages, and stressed the importance of ensuring seamless connectivity in strategically important areas to bridge the digital divide and enhance service delivery, the spokesman said.
He said the chief secretary took note of the steady advancement across multiple verticals and emphasised the need for accelerating execution timelines to ensure timely completion of all sanctioned sites.
The Amended Bharat Net Programme (ABP) was also reviewed in detail, the spokesman said, adding the project, funded by Digital Bharat Nidhi and owned by the Department of Telecommunications, aims to provide optical fibre connectivity to all gram panchayats with a minimum 98 percent network uptime.
Key milestones achieved include signing of agreements with project implementation agencies, establishment of a Network Operations Centre at Jammu, centralized billing mechanisms, and resolution of inter-departmental issues through a tripartite MoU, he said.
On 5G preparedness, the spokesman said the IT department highlighted initiatives taken for Right of Way facilitation, 5G street furniture mapping, and capacity building, including a one-day workshop on 5G and RoW organised in November 2025 in collaboration with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
The chief secretary, while assessing the rollout of the Samriddh Gram Panchayat Pilot Project, which seeks to digitally empower rural institutions through FTTH connectivity, covering 2,234 schools and 1,138 primary health centres in rural areas. He said digital connectivity at the grassroots level is critical for improving governance, education, healthcare and entrepreneurship. |
