Indus Towers Ltd, India’s largest telecommunication tower operator, on Tuesday said it has restored mobile phone communication in most of the 1,800 tower sites severely impacted in Vadodara and South Gujarat areas in last week’s torrential rains and flash floods.
Between September 24 and 30, most industrial areas in Gujarat, including Surat, Bharuch, Vadodara, Gandhidham, Jamnagar and Kutch districts, witnessed very heavy rainfall and flash floods due to swollen rivers.
Ahmedabad, Surat, Bharuch and Vadodara were among the worst affected as normal life had been thrown out of gear and nearly 10,000 people were evacuated at multiple locations.
The grim situation severely impacted mobile infrastructure in various parts of Gujarat, Indus Towers said, adding its field operations team ensured that mobile communication services were least impacted.
Bimal Dayal, COO, said of the 2,969 tower sites, 1,800 were isolated due to water logging or no power supply. Most of these have already been restored. A 24x7 war-room had also been set up to coordinate all activities.
Indus Towers is an independently managed company offering passive infrastructure services to all telecom operators. Founded in 2007, it was promoted under a joint venture among entities of Bharti Infratel Ltd, Vodafone India and Aditya Birla Telecom.
Indus has a presence in 15 major telecom circles of India, and has achieved 221,511 tenancies, a first in the telecom tower industry globally. With 111,819 towers in 15 circles across the country, Indus has the widest coverage in India and is also the largest telecom tower company in the world.