Central Government launched phase 2 of the BharatNet project to connect 1.5 lakh gram panchayats with high-speed broadband by March 2019.
- It will be implemented at an outlay of around of Rs 34000 crores.
- Telecom minister Manoj Sinha, Law and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad and Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar would be launching the project at National conference in New Delhi.
- Under Phase 2, BSNL will roll out optical fibre in eight states that were not covered under the first phase. These eight states are Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim.
Fact about Bharat Net Project
- Bharat Net Project, formerly known as National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) was launched by Central Government in October, 2011 with an aim to deploy high-speed optical fibre cables across rural areas of India.
- Its goal is to provide broadband connectivity to all 2.5 Lakh Gram Panchayats in India.
- The project is being implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL).
- BBNL has assigned the execution work to three government owned companies – Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), Power Grid Corporation of India (PGCI) and RailTel Corporation of India (RailTel).
- Total project cost of BharatNet is estimated to be around 45000 crore, out of which Rs. 11200 crore have been used for the phase 1.
