New Delhi: BharatNet is the world’s largest optical fiber based rural broadband connectivity project. Executed by Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a special purpose organization under the Ministry of Telecommunications, the ambitious rural internet access program is an initiative by the Government of India under its Digital India programme.
In the last decade, every administration has set a target to connect every village and rural household with high speed internet. The UPA started this program under the name “National Optical Fiber Network” (NOFN) in 2011 under the Manmohan Singh government, which was changed to “BharatNet” after the Modi government came to power.
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Using optical fibre, the program intends to bring broadband connectivity to every nook and corner of the country. The government intends to provide a minimum of 100 Mbps bandwidth to each Gram Panchayat through BharatNet so that everyone, especially in rural India, can access online services. This includes services like e-governance, e-learning, e-banking, e-commerce and e-health.
time frame dynamics
The UPA government decided to implement the program to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in three phases. It assured completion of the entire project within a period of 2 years, setting 2013 as the project deadline. But the incompleteness pushed the deadlines to March 2015 for Phase I, March 2016 for Phase II and December 2016 for Phase III.
With the NDA coming to power in 2014, these deadlines were further extended, with the first phase of connecting just over one lakh panchayats completed in December 2017.
Three Central Public Sector Undertakings, namely BSNL, RailTel and POWERGRID supervised the implementation. Phase II, which will connect the remaining 1.5 lakh panchayats, is currently being implemented. According to officials, the project is expected to be completed by August 2021.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced an economic package of Rs 6.28 lakh crore. This includes Rs 19,041 crore in Viability Gap Support for Village Broadband Connectivity Scheme and has been approved by the Union Cabinet.
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