Ghes, a small village located atop the hills in Uttarakhand, has now been transformed to a ‘smart village’. This is why even though it is completely out of touch with electricity, it gets high-speed WiFi internet connection.

The state’s Information Technology Development Agency (ITDA) took up the mission of bringing the availability of high speed internet to Ghes but the major challenge was doing this without access to electricity.

How did ITDA set up high speed WiFi?

The ITDA had the idea of setting up WiFi in this region by using solar panels. Their main motive was to change the lives of the residents and change the face of education in Ghes. With the help of the internet, the village can make up for the lack of teachers in school.

A six-member State Wide Area Network (SWAN) team was sent to Ghes by the state government to establish this internet connection. They covered a distance of 300 km looking for ways to set up the internet.

In about one month, RF antennas were set up in Ghes and Himini along with two other nearby villages. Along with the antennas, the team set up solar panels and 2 KVA inverters in the area.

A local government college had access to a projector and a computer by the end of March which then led to high speed connectivity for the rest of the village up to a 200-meter radius. This project had a budget of Rs 34 lakh.

Challenges faced by the team

After the Wifi network was up and running, there were some issues faced by the team regarding its working.

The usage of solar panels for internet proved to be somewhat unreliable as the speed hugely depends on the weather. The poor supply of sunlight sometimes leads to slower speed and poor connectivity.

The government had decided to pick a fairly backward village for this project in hoped to transform it with new technology.

After the completion of this project, several other MLA’s have been contacting the government to develop smart villages in their constituency, as reported to The Indian Express by a senior SWAN official.