The Shri Kedarnath Yatra information technology project was presented the national award on e-governance at the 20th National Conference on e-Governance held at Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh January 9-10. According to the Rudraprayag district officials, it is for the first time that a project from the mountain State of Uttarakhand has won the national award since its inception.
The Rudraprayag District Magistrate and project head Raghav langer received the award for installation and commissioning of wireless local Area Network in the Kedar valley from the district headquarters up to the Kedarnath temple also facilitating video conferencing services, electronic surveillance through internet protocol (IP) cameras, Wi-fi, internet facility, hotline communication and provision of hotspots at different points on Yatra route.
According to information provided by the district authorities, this year’s conference with the theme of digital transformation towards transforming India was organised jointly by the Union Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and the Union Department of Administrative Reforms and Public Grievances (DARPG). Secretaries of the government of India, senior officials and delegates from all the State Governments and the representatives from the industrial sector including the Confederation of Indian Industry Industry (CII) among others were present at the event. Varied key topics in the field of e-governance were deliberated upon with experts from the private sector speaking on digital connectivity to the last mile, data analytics, cyber security policy for the future and the post-demonetisation aspect of technology led monetary transaction leading to financial inclusion.
The Kedarnath wireless local area network project was awarded in Silver Category for the innovative use of technology in e-governance developed for the strengthening of communication along Yatra route for effective disaster management, mitigation and response (G2G) along with the delivery of various information and communication technologies (ICT)- enabled services to pilgrims and locals and network bandwidth support to private operators for their service delivery. The district magistrate Raghav langer said, “Amongst various post-disaster reconstruction works and efforts put in by the State Government for restarting the Kedarnath Yatra, this flagship IT initiative has also been one significant contributor in re-instilling confidence in people regarding the safety of the pilgrimage that has seen increasing number of pilgrims coming to the Kedarnath shrine every year in a very short span of time- helping in reviving the Char Dham Yatra and economy of the region.” After a rigorous 3-stage scrutiny process that includes comprehensive screening, field visits by experts for technical audit and presentation before the jury committee in New Delhi, a total of 20 path breaking IT projects all across the country were finally selected for the National Awards for the year 2016. The award comprises a scroll/certificate for the project along with cash award of Rs 2,00,000 and Rs 1,00,000 in gold and silver categories respectively.
After the June 2013 disaster, the Rudraprayag district distaster management authority wanted to establish a communication network in Kedarnath valley which could serve as a reliable, all weather/sturdy base network communication system. A wireless local intranet network in the evacuated bandwidth of 2.4 GHz to 5.7 GHz was established from Sonprayag at an altitude of about 4,500 feet to Kedarnath shrine at an altitude of about 11,600 feet along a trek route 21 kilometres in length in extremely harsh environmental condition, topography, sub-zero temperatures and in a heavy snowfall/ precipitation area. In spite of tough terrain and extreme weather conditions the network was able to provide the services like free Wi-Fi, hotline SIP (session initiation protocol) communication, video conferencing services, real time RFID tracking of mules/ horses, public displays screens for live feed of Kedarnath temple and of major points on the track, deployment of internet kiosk machines and 24X7 electronic surveillance of all vulnerable points in Kedarnath valley using high end night vision cameras. Further this network was extended using point to point hopping technology with the help of 17 base stations to the Rudraprayag district head quarter covering a distance of about 91 kilometres. Two main switching centers -Rudraprayag and Sonprayag- were set up for rendering the services. An Internet lease line was integrated with the network at the district HQ that activated the Wi-fi internet 3G services along the yatra trek route --something which was considered impossible to be achieved by private mobile service providers in the next few years of the post-disaster scenario.