Kashmir, August 27, 2025 – The Centre has issued an urgent directive to all telecom service providers, including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone-Idea, to immediately activate the intra-circle roaming (ICR) facility in Jammu and Kashmir until September 2, 2025, or until further notice. The move comes in response to a severe disruption of telecom services caused by relentless rainfall and multiple landslides, creating a flood-like situation in the Jammu division.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its disaster management unit, invoked Clause 29.6 of the Unified Licence and the SOP 2020 for disaster response to ensure seamless communication. The directive mandates that the ICR facility be extended to all in-roamers in the J&K Union Territory on a top-priority basis. This step aims to restore connectivity in areas hit by network outages due to widespread damage to optical fibre cables caused by incessant rain.The communication blackout has severely hampered emergency response measures and triggered panic among residents. Telecom operators have deployed technical teams to restore services as quickly as possible, despite challenging conditions.
