LEH: Amit Sharma, Administrative Secretary, Information Technology Department, Ladakh today held a comprehensive review meeting on State Wide Area Network (SWAN) which is in the advance stages of implementation in UT as on date.

This meeting was attended by multiple stakeholders who are involved with this important Project in this strategic part of the nation.

Major participants in today's meeting included Director Rural Development Tahir Hussain, Assistant Commissioners Development Leh and Kargil, Deputy Secretary IT, Under Secretary Rural Development, Vice President M/s Inspira (Vendor) Narinder Sharma and his team including Akhil Jandyal and others, IT Consultant Kumar Amit and IT Managers of UT Ladakh.

At the outset, Secretary IT Amit Sharma mentioned the top priority of UT Government led by Lieutenant Governor Brig Dr B.D Mishra (Retd) and Advisor Dr Pawan Kotwal to make citizens life easier with connectivity till last mile which shall become a reality soon through spread of SWAN network till the level of Gram Panchayats in UT of Ladakh and the number shall be around 200 SWAN points including SHQ, DHQ, BHQ and GP levels.

It was informed by Director RDD that the requisite task of building infrastructure including sheds and platforms for Gensets is getting ready and it was accordingly advised by IT Secretary Amit Sharma to vendor M/s Inspira to immediately start installing SWAN infra at ready sites while he further told his teams of IT and Rural Development Departments to take necessary steps to ensure provisioning of requisite bandwidth and power connectivity at each and every site to be linked through SWAN in UT so that the Project does get delayed beyond prescribed timelines.

Before culmination of the meeting, they assured that the SWAN infrastructure shall be in-place before the onset of harsh winters in Ladakh so that it can benefit the public at large since it is otherwise tough to connect with important Panchayati Raj Institutions and public residing in remote villages during winter season here.

IT Secretary Amit Sharma, expressed satisfaction over progress till date especially through the Inspections and field visits conducted by departments teams for ongoing SWAN Project but he advised them to maintain same pace to ensure that SWAN goes ‘live' in Ladakh soon.