Laying of optical fiber cable in 6 Sindh districts launched

Federal Ministry of IT and Telecommunications launched 3 projects for laying optical fiber cable in 6 districts of Sindh on Thursday.

Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah and Federal Minister for IT Syed Aminul Haq attended the signing ceremony in Karachi.

The agreement was signed by Haris Mahmood Chaudhry of Universal Service Fund and Hatim Bamtarif of PTCL.

The project includes Hyderabad, Badin, Dadu, Jamshoro, Larkana, and Kambar Shahdadkot districts, however Thar and Sanghar have not been included in the project.

Disconnectivity bars Thari youth to take online classes

It may be mentioned that the students of far flung districts Tharparkar and Sanghar have been complaining of poor connectivity which was affecting their studies and research.

The projects are being launched under the Universal Service Fund of the Ministry of IT, federal minister Syed Aminul Haq said.

207 union councils will be connected with 2,192 km optical fiber cable, cost will be Rs 5 billion.

Federal Minister for IT said that 686 educational institutions, 212 health centers, 276 government offices will be connected through this projects and added that 1367 mobile towers connected by optical cable will be able to provide fastest services.

The Ministry of IT is spending Rs 14.43 billion on 15 projects in 19 districts of Sindh.

These projects will provide facilities to more than 14.2 million people in these districts.

Thari Students complain

Ahmed Janjhi is a student of Mehran University of Engineering and Technology. He is in his village these days due to the lockdown of corona virus. So carrying mobile phones or laptops he is wandering on mounds to get signals.
The Telenor service is only available in the backward areas of Thar, including Janjhi, which claims to be providing 3G and instant G services. Thari youth are victim of digital divide.

Ahmed Janjhi says that due to unavailability of signals, he has to stay in Hyderabad or Umerkot city where his expenses range from Rs 20,000 to Rs 25,000 and about 40 students from his village are far from their homes for studies despite corona fourth wave. If the signal problem in their villages is resolved, they can stay here and take online classes.

Ahmed’s father, Sohrab Janjhi, is a teacher at a local higher secondary school. He says solar energy has provided many facilities as well as opportunities. People are lighting their homes at their own expense, but the situation with mobile service and internet is very complicated. They can’t even imagine providing online classes to high school students.

Even high schools students are unable to take benefit of online material available on net. There are around 300 students in local high school. Janjhi taluka Chachro is educational center of the area.