New Delhi: The flagship programme of the Union government, BharatNet, which intends to provide gram panchayats, and thereby, villages with high-speed optical fibre-based internet is lagging behind the targeted schedule in both phase one and phase two of its implementation, the Indian Express has reported.
While the government had aimed to connect all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country with high-speed optical fibre-enabled broadband by 2019, however, under both phases of the scheme, optical fibre cable had been laid in 1,73,233 gram panchayats only. Laying of cables is only half the work done as internet connectivity needs to be set up in the villages which are service ready.
As per data available until June 25, a total of only 1,56,833 gram panchayats, excluding block headquarters, were service ready while the internet connectivity service was opened only in 1,50,744 gram panchayats.
Of the total, 1,18,635 gram panchayats had been made service ready under phase one of BharatNet, and 34,689 under phase two of the scheme.
A gram panchayat becomes service-ready when it is connected to the main grid of the internet of the block headquarters of that area. On the other hand, internet connectivity in a gram panchayat is considered open if end users are connected to the internet grid.
The government had envisaged connecting 1 lakh gram panchayats to high-speed internet by 2019 under phase one, and another 1.5 lakh panchayats under phase two by March 2020.
After it had failed to meet the envisaged targets in March 2020, the government extended the deadline for completion of both phases by August 2021. However, in September 2020, it announced the August 2021 deadline may have to be extended further, as works had been affected due to curbs imposed due to lockdown and COVID outbreak.
Meanwhile, on August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, delivering his Independence Day speech, had announced that six lakh villages in the country would be connected with high-speed optical fibre over the next 1,000 days. However, this seems like a far-fetched dream given the pace of works.
In fact, the erstwhile BharatNet project, which began in 2011 as National Optical Fibre Network, missing various deadlines has been delayed by 92 months. With the inordinate delays, the government on June 30 this year had decided to change the execution strategy of programme and called in private players to finish the pending work of BharatNet.
As per the new arrangement, the works will now be carried out under a public-private partnership (PPP) mode, where the concessionaire will be selected through a competitive international bidding process and will be responsible for creation, upgradation, operation, maintenance and utilisation of BharatNet. The new strategy will be implemented in 16 states to begin with.
The request for proposal for the PPP mode is expected to be released over the next two weeks, and the government will then invite bidders for the project, the Indian Express quoted a senior official as saying.
The total estimated cost of the BharatNet implementation under PPP mode is Rs 29,432 crore, of which the government will be spending Rs 19,041 crore for viability gap funding.