The government on Monday launched the second phase of the BharatNet project with an outlay of Rs 31,000 crore, aiming to bring high-speed broadband to all gram panchayats by March 2019, PTI reported. Telecom operators made their payments to buy bandwidth for the project, with Reliance Jio paying the most – Rs 13 crore.
Under the first phase, the government planned to connect 3 lakh villages in 1 lakh panchayats to broadband, and it will be complete by next month, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said. The second phase is expected to connect 1.5 lakh panchayats.
Seven states signed memoranda of understanding with the Centre, to be part of the project.
State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will roll out optical fibre in eight states, taking optical fibre connectivity in India from 10 lakh km to 20 lakh km, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said.
The National Optical Fibre Network was approved by the United Progressive Alliance government in 2011, and it was renamed to BharatNet and its progress was expedited by the current government.
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