In a major boost to Indian government's aim to digitise India, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the revised implementation strategy of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership mode in 16 states. BharatNet will now extend up to all inhabited villages beyond Gram Panchayats (GPs) in these states — Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. An estimated 3.61 lakh villages including GPs will be covered.
The approval comes after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the revised strategy and the additional allocation on Monday. Sitharaman announced that the government will make an additional outlay of over Rs 19,000 crore for the BharatNet project aimed at broadband connectivity in rural India.
The revised strategy also includes creation, upgradation, operation, maintenance and utilisation of BharatNet by the concessionaire who will be selected by a competitive international bidding process.
What is BharatNet?
BharatNet programme was earlier known as National Optical Fibre Network, initiated by Manmohan Singh-led UPA government with an aim to connect 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats across the country. It is considered to be the biggest rural telecom project in the world and is an integral part of the central government's Digital India initiative.
Under BharatNet programme, the government aims to provide at least 100Mbps speeds to each Gram Panchayat in order to avail online services, such as e-governance, e-learning, e-banking, e-commerce and e-health services.
Since BharatNet is now open to private players, it has its own set of advantages. It will bring the following:
- Use of innovative technology by the Private Sector Provider for the consumers
- High quality of service and Service Level to consumers
- Faster deployment of network and quick connectivity to consumers
- Competitive tariffs for services
- Variety of services on high-speed broadband including Over the top (OTT) services and multi-media services as part of packages offered to consumers
- Access to all online services
As per government data, more than 1.56 lakh out of 2.5 lakh gram panchayats have already been connected and are service-ready. An estimated 3.61 lakh villages including Gram Panchayats will be covered.
With the additional outlay of Rs 19,041 crore, the total outlay for the much ambitious project would be Rs 61,109 crore including the already approved amount of Rs 42,068 crore in 2017. The initiative which is implemented in a public-private partnership model has been delayed to a great extent and has missed deadlines so far.
