Himachal Pradesh Restores 65% of Damaged Telecom Network After Heavy Rains

Shimla: Despite widespread disruption caused by incessant rains, the Himachal Pradesh government has placed the restoration of telecom services among its highest priorities. Officials confirmed that in the worst-affected districts of Chamba, Kullu, and Lahaul-Spiti, about 65% of damaged networks have already been restored.

The scale of disruption was severe. According to network outage reports, of the 1,761 telecom sites run by Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL, and Vodafone Idea in Chamba, 1,155 (around 66%) were down on August 27, 2025, at the peak of the rains. This widespread failure crippled communications, seriously hampering emergency response and rescue operations. By September 2, however, the number of inactive sites dropped to 374, marking a 45% improvement in connectivity.

In Kullu, nearly 85% of Airtel’s 877 sites are operational, while Reliance Jio has restored about 65% of its 1,173 sites. BSNL’s recovery has been much slower, with only 20% of its 391 sites back in service. In Lahaul-Spiti, recovery is almost complete: Airtel has restored 96.8% of its 63 sites, while Jio has revived 84.1% of its 170 sites.

Gokul Butel, Principal Advisor (IT & Innovation) to the Chief Minister, said the government is making every effort to restore services quickly. “By September 2, we had restored 65% of damaged sites across Chamba, Kullu, and Lahaul-Spiti,” he confirmed.

In Chamba’s Bharmaur region, partial progress has also been made. Connectivity at five out of ten BSNL centers has been restored using microwave systems, while the rest are expected to follow soon. Repairing optical fiber lines could take about a week. Reliance Jio’s services in Bharmaur are expected to resume by September 6, while Airtel has already restored its 2G network in the area.

Butel added that despite the challenging weather, the government is working “at full strength” to restore critical telecom infrastructure, which has suffered heavy damage and caused significant inconvenience to the public.