The central government will discuss the national optical fibre network project (NOFN) with various states on May 29, 2015. This comes with a view to increase the participation of the states in the project for its timely execution.
Recently a report for the same was submitted to the government by a team led by former IT Secretary, J Satyanarayana. The Satyanarayana-led committee had recommended involvement of private sector for the project, increased role of state governments, use of satellites and radiowaves for providing connectivity to certain areas, among others. The committee had also proposed to rename the project as BharatNet.
The NOFN project has a total outlay of Rs 727.78 billion and aims to provide broadband connectivity to 250,000 gram panchayats by end-2016. By the end of March 2015, only 20,000 village panchayats got broadband connectivity whereas the target was to connect 50,000 village panchayats. Future targets include reaching 100,000 gram panchayats by March 2016 and the rest by end of 2016.
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