On September 15th, 2018: The Hon’ble Prime Minister interacted with the ITBP jawans from Pangong, Leh-Ladakh via Video Conference, a first of its kind event in the world in the sense that it was held at such a high altitude. The VC event was organized by the District Administration Leh with the technical support of NIC. At a very short notice, NIC Leh established Video Conferencing facilities at Pangong which includes VC equipment, network equipment, UPS, LCD projectors, DTH set, PA systems and other logistics. The connectivity was through a 10 Mbps Internet Lease Line from BSNL. It was indeed a herculean task for our NIC team to transport equipment and setup Videoconference facilities at such a remotely located place situated at a distance of 135 Kms from Leh district headquarter and an altitude of 4250 metres above sea level between Lat 33.965002ºand Lon 78.421782º.

The inclement weather was another challenge as the temperature was touching zero during night and strong winds were an obstruction for smooth execution of work at the venue. The biggest challenge was to get through the 10Mbps Internet Lease Line at the venue of the event which was the backbone of connectivity without which conducting video conference was a distant dream. But with the coordinated and combined efforts of NIC and BSNL team stationed at Pangong, who worked till late hours for two days, could managed to established a reliable connectivity.

Finally, with the active support and guidance from the Deputy Commissioner, Leh, State Informatics Officer, NIC J&K and VC division, we could able to successfully conduct interactive Video Conferencing that too with our Hon’ble Prime Minister from such a tough location. The ITBP officers were immensely happy to be part of the event as audience.

After the event, as a good gesture, we had provided free Wi-Fi Internet access to the ITBP and Army jawans posted there to check WhatsApp messages and video calling to their family members. They were away from their respective homes for more than 4 months and during this period a lot of post and messages were in their WhatsApp inboxes. They were very happy to download and see all the messages/posts. We were very happy to see their smiling faces which gave us inner satisfaction to serve them, at least by providing internet facilities.