Government restoring telecom services on top priority
Amid heavy rains, the State Government is working vigorously to restore vital telecommunication infrastructure across the State, which have suffered significant damages causing inconvenience to the public at large. Extensive damage was suffered by the Telecommunication Network in Chamba, Kullu & Lahaul-Spiti districts on 25th & 26th August 2025 due to torrential rains and the telecom services were badly hit in these districts due to devastation. As many as 65 percent damaged sites were made functional in these districts as on 2nd September, 2025.
The intensity of the disaster was such that, according to the network outage report, out of total 1761 sites in district Chamba being operated by Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL and Vodafone Idea, 1155 (around 66%) sites were non-functional as on 27th August, 2025. This massive breakdown severely hampered communication and posed grave challenges to the emergency response and connectivity in the region. Recognizing the urgency of the situation, the State Government under the directives of Chief Minister Thakur Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, immediately initiated round the clock efforts to restore electricity supply and mobilized all telecom service providers to work on war footing for the restoration of the telecommunication services.
Principal Advisor, Information Technology and Innovation to Chief Minister Gokul Butail said that as on 2nd September, 2025, only 374 sites remain non-functional, indicating a 45% improvement in the network in Chamba district.
He said that, as far as Bharmour region is concerned, out of ten sites of BSNL, network has been restored on micro-wave connectivity at five sites and the rest of the sites will be restored very shortly. The work of OFC restoration is also likely to take almost a week. He said that the connectivity of Reliance Jio in Bharmour region was likely to be made functional by 6th September and the 2G services of Airtel have already been restored in the area.
Gokul Butail said that in Kullu district, out of 877 sites of Airtel telecom services, 84.9 percent were made functional as on 2nd September, 2025, while out of 1173 sites, 65 percent Reliance Jio telecom services were functioning smoothly. He said that out of 391 sites of BSNL, about 20 percent telecom services are working normal. He said that in Lahaul-Spiti district, out of 63 sites of Airtel, 96.8 percent were made operational whereas out of 170 sites of Reliance Jio Services, 84.1 percent were functioning smoothly as on 2nd September, 2025.
