– It felt very dramatic. We were in an unfamiliar place and didn’t know what to do, says Shavmila Meenakshi. She is on holiday in Norway with her mother, daughter (18) and her friend Shankaran Vedagir. On Wednesday evening, the tour group from India had just stopped to take pictures of the magnificent nature on Gaularfjellet. A couple of turns down the steep mountainside towards Balestrand, it came to a complete stop. One tire on the rental car was punctured. The fewest new cars have spare wheels. The rescue was in the mobile phone. They thought. This view on the national tourist route attracts many. But should the accident happen, you won’t get anywhere with the mobile phone here. Photo: Trine Kanter Zerwekh / Trine Kanter Zerwekh, Statens ve The viewpoint on Gaularfjellet between Sunnfjord and Sogn was ready in 2016. Price tag: NOK 20 million. But the Instagram-friendly stop lacks something many of us take for granted in 2023: Mobile coverage. “Now it will finally be possible to post “insta” from here”, wrote news in 2021. Telenor was finally to start securing national highway 13 mobile coverage. Two years later, there are still zero lines on the mobile display. On Telenor’s coverage map, large parts of Gaularfjellsvegen are like a grey, coverage-free enclave in an otherwise blue coverage map. If you’re lucky, at best you have 2G coverage at a single point. On Telenor’s coverage map, you can clearly see how bad things are on the national tourist route over Gaularfjellet. Parts of the road have 2G coverage at best, if you’re lucky. Photo: Screenshot: Telenor.no Afraid they had to sleep in the car The unfortunate Indian tourists were helped by passers-by, who also tried to call for help, but to no avail. – It was a desperate situation, says Meenakshi. It was gray and wet outside and it was starting to get dark. They had little food or drink in the car. Meenakshi’s mother has bad legs and can hardly walk more than 50 metres. She was also very scared and worried. They feared they would have to sleep in the car and wait for help. Eventually a random passing motorist came and helped the stranded traveling party. He drove several kilometers until he found cover and called for help from the tourists. In the meantime, the tourists had notified Volvo about the incident in the rental car via an SOS button. In the end, an ambulance came and collected their vehicle. The tourists were very light. At 2 o’clock in the morning they arrived in Førde, and here they were able to stay at a campsite. On Thursday, the plan was to travel on, but first they have to get the car fixed at a workshop. – We are very grateful for all the help we received. But it is important to get mobile coverage in place. Not just for tourists, but for everyone else who drives this road, should something happen, says Vedagir. Shavmila Meenakshi (right) and her friend Shankaran Vedagir hope to get the car fixed in Førde as soon as possible, so that they can travel on to Flåm. It is Meenakshi’s mother’s big dream to experience that place. Photo: Astrid Solheim Korsvoll / news Telenor promises coverage during the year – I fully understand that people want mobile coverage, says Bjørn Amundsen, director of coverage at Telenor. In the summer of 2021, he promised coverage on Gaularfjellet within 18 months. The fact that it is still not in place is due to several things, he explains. Mobile coverage is, among other things, a collaboration between Telenor and Sogndal municipality. Here, among other things, a building notice is required to start the work itself. The paperwork was recently completed, and now the construction itself is in the works. – But now another reef has appeared in the sea, says Amundsen and says that the project has become more expensive than planned. Telenor and Sogndal municipality must agree on how the costs are to be distributed before construction can start. – I’m not talking about numbers, but we will take this up with the municipality anyway and not through the media first, says the director of coverage. But he is clear that they have a goal of getting mobile coverage in place in the area before 2023 is over. Helle Selseng in Sogndal municipality says the following about the matter: – This has been a process where agreements, neighbor notices, proceedings and handling must be in place with several different bodies, says Selseng. Now that all this is in the box, the next step for the municipality is a meeting with Telenor where they will agree on the distribution of costs. – Too bad Sunnfjord Utvikling works for business and tourism in the region. They think it is a shame that there is still no mobile phone coverage. – Gaularfjellet is a beacon for the tourism industry in the region, and there is a heavy focus on selling experiences here, says daily manager Gunhild Berge Stang. She points out that there are a number of people on the national tourist routes who are not used to traveling in the area. Not everyone knows who to contact if something bad happens. – One might think that being without mobile coverage is exotic, but it is also terribly impractical. news has been in contact with National Tourist Routes about the matter. They have no comment, says Werner Harstad, line manager for Gaularfjellet. The accident happened on the road over Gaularfjellet in Vestland county.
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When the accident was on the national tourist road, the Indian tourists did not get to call for help – news Vestland
