The first meeting of the UT Broadband Mission was convened by Advisor Umang Narula with stakeholders from the Department of Telecommunication J&K, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), and Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) on August 18.

The meeting focuses on enhancing the coverage of tele-connectivity in the Ladakh region by facilitating the working of various telecom operators and mobile tower erecting companies in the Union Territory. 

Umang Narula highlighted the requirement of considering hamlets as a unit instead of villages as the hamlets in Ladakh are at good distances from each other and it is required that every hamlet in Ladakh is connected through fiberised mobile towers. He also highlighted the need for enhancing tower density and covering the highways with tele-connectivity and ensuring that alternate ring OFC media is put in place for a backup in case of breakdown.   

DDG LSA J&K, A.K Tiwari gave a detailed presentation covering the importance of Broadband for the socio-economic growth of the region, objectives of National Broadband Mission, and functions of State Broadband Committee in accomplishing the objectives of NBM. Also, he spoke about the requirement of the formulation of the Right of Way Rules for Ladakh to expedite ROW permissions to facilitate better tele-connectivity, fiberisation of towers, and discussed the way forward.

Secretary IT Ladakh, Saugat Biswas apprised the meeting that the Right of Way Rules for the UT has been drafted and has been sent to TAIPA, COAI as well as various stakeholders departments for feedback. He informed that the ROW rules will be notified shortly which will provide a Single Window Clearance System for both OFC installation and mobile tower erection.

DG TAIPA, Tilak Raj Dua delivered a presentation highlighting the need of formulating a uniform ROW policy for UT Ladakh. He spoke about various issues that the Telecom Service Providers face in setting up telecommunication infrastructure due to the lack of a proper policy in place.  

Dr. J. Jena, DDG COAI, Radheshyam Parmar, DDG LSA, J&K DoT, Kailash Chandra, Director LSA, J&K DoT, Rajiv Goyal, GM, BBNL, Sachin, ADET LSA, J&K DoT, Amit Rawat, ADET LSA, J&K DoT were also present in the meeting.