Under the BharatNet Project, the government had initially targeted to connect all 2.52 lakh gram panchayats with fast-speed broadband service. PM later announced to expand this project to all villages.
Bharatnet Project
Important decisions have been taken for the telecom sector in the cabinet and CCEA meeting on Wednesday. Allotment of 19 thousand crore rupees has been approved by the cabinet today for the BharatNet project. The government had allocated another Rs 19,041 crore to provide broadband internet connection facility to all villages under the BharatNet project.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced on August 15, 2020 that all villages would be connected with broadband in 1,000 days. Announcing incentive measures for various sectors on Monday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that another Rs 19,041 crore has been made available for broadband connectivity so that the target of connecting all villages with broadband in 1,000 days from 2020 can be achieved. Could. Sitharaman said that this will increase the total expenditure on the BharatNet project to Rs 61,109 crore.
The Finance Minister said that till May 31, Rs 42,068 crore had been spent on the work of connecting 1,56,223 gram panchayats with the broadband network. Apart from this, Rs 19,041 crore will be able to complete the remaining project. Under the BharatNet project, the government had initially targeted to connect all 2.52 lakh gram panchayats with fast-speed broadband service. The Prime Minister later announced to expand this project to all villages.
What is BharatNet Project
The second and final phase of the BharatNet project was started in 2017. Under this project, the government aims to connect 1.5 lakh panchayats through an additional 10 lakh km of optical fiber and provide broadband and Wi-Fi service in rural areas to telecom companies at an affordable cost of about 75 per cent.
Villagers will benefit from BharatNet project
BharatNet project can be considered as the largest broadband program in the world which will connect the villagers. Under the project, BharatNet is to be implemented in PPP model in 16 states (bundled in nine packages) on funding basis. The total outlay will now be Rs 61,109 crore including an amount of Rs 42,068 crore already sanctioned in 2017. With the expansion of BharatNet, ad-upgrading will include village panchayats and inhabited villages.
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