Army, people power cell service in village on Pangong shore

LEH: After years of waiting for telecom connectivity, residents of Merak, a forward village opposite Finger 3 area on the south bank of Pangong lake in Ladakh, hit upon a novel formula to make their dream come true.

In an unusual example of collaboration, the Army agreed to allot capacity in a 25-km optical fibre cable link to Chushul for civilian traffic, state-run telecom service provider BSNL set up the equipment, villagers provided the labour and money for a solar-storage power plant came from councillor Konchok Stanzin’s constituency development fund.

The village finally made it to the country’s telecom map on March 1 and has 24×7 service.