Bharat Net covers 1 lakh panchayats

Bharat Net covers 1 lakh panchayats

Context

The government on Monday said it had laid optical fibre in more than 1 lakh gram panchayats, completing the first phase of the BharatNet project that forms the backbone for the Digital India initiative.

Govt. aims to lay fibre network by Dec.

• The delay-marred project aims to bring high speed broadband to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats (GPs) through optical fibre.
• The project, earlier called the National Optical Fibre Network, had obtained Cabinet approval in 2011 and the deadline was fixed for the end of 2013.
• It was later deferred to September 2015 by the UPA government

Shifting deadlines

The NDA government re-examined the project status and set a target to complete the roll-out by the end of 2016. This was later delayed to December 2018. Now, the deadline is set for March 2019.

Second Phase

• Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said, “For the second phase, financial incentive and disincentive clauses should be incorporated.”
• Telecom Secretary ArunaSundararajan said the project’s second phase had been initiated and “we hope it will be completed well in time by December 2018.”