PM Modi speaks to residents after Himachal Pradesh's Giu village gets mobile network for first time (WATCH)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday spoke to residents of Giu village in Himachal Pradesh’s Spiti after the area was connected to the mobile network for the first time. During their almost 13-minute phone chat, Modi talked about his trip to the border area for Diwali and claimed that getting the community connected to the cell network will accelerate the "Digital India" initiative.

The government is now prioritising linking all places with the communication technology after meeting success with the electrification exercise, the prime minister said, noting that when he came to power more than 18,000 villages lacked electricity.

A villager told him that they could not believe it for a moment when they were told that the area will be connected to the mobile network and their happiness knew know no bounds when it finally happened. According to him, they had to go for almost eight kilometers in the past to use their phones.

Located in the valley of the Parang or Pare Chu River, right before it meets the Spiti River, is Kaurik, which is part of Himachal Pradesh's Lahaul and Spiti districts. It is situated close to the Tibetan border.

Within the Tabo hamlet of the Spiti Valley in Himachal Pradesh, Giu is a village situated around 40 miles away from the Tabo Monastery. Situated at latitude 31.11 and longitude 77.16, the settlement is not too far from the border between India and China.