The government has advanced the deadline for the completion of the third and last phase of the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project by three months from March 2017. As a result, the project which aims to provide broadband connectivity to 250,000 gram panchayats will be completed by December 2016.
However, there has been no change in the deadlines for the Phase I and Phase II rollouts of the NOFN project. Under the two phases, 50,000 and 100,000 gram panchayats would be connected with optical fibre cables to provide broadband services before March 2015 and March 2016 respectively.
Post the completion of the project, each gram panchayat will be provided with a speed of 100 mbps to facilitate broadband services.
Meanwhile, due to several procedural delays and multiple deadline changes faced by the executing entities of NOFN project, the government has already initiated working on alternative approaches to ensure timely completion of the project?s roll out.
