Himachal: 65 per cent telecom sites damaged in calamity, now functional

Shimla, Sep 3 (PTI) About 65 per cent of telecommunication sites, which were damaged due to heavy rain, landslides and flash floods last week in the Chamba, Kullu and Lahaul-Spiti districts, have been made functional, an official said on Wednesday.

On August 25 and 26, the telecommunication network in the districts suffered extensive damage, Principal Advisor, Information Technology and Innovation to Chief Minister Himachal Pradesh, Gokul Butail, said in a statement.

As of September 2, out of the 1761 sites operated by Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL and Vodafone Idea in the Chamba district, only 374 sites remained non-functional, Butail said in a statement, adding that 1155 sites were non-functional as of August 27.

In the Kullu district, out of the 877 Airtel telecom sites, about 85 per cent have been made functional, while out of the 1173 sites operated by Reliance Jio telecom services, 65 per cent were functioning smoothly, Butail said.

He added that out of the 391 BSNL sites, about 20 per cent of telecom services are working normally.

In the Lahaul-Spiti district, out of the 63 Airtel sites, 96.8 per cent were made operational, whereas out of the 170 Reliance Jio Service sites, 84.1 per cent were functioning smoothly, Butail mentioned, asserting that the restoration of telecom services is the state government's priority. PTI BPL SHS SHS MPL MPL