The Union Cabinet has approved the revised implementation of BharatNet through public-private partnership (PPP) mode in villages in 16 states with a viability gap funding of Rs 190.41 billion.
The Cabinet decided that the total expenditure to cover 360,000 villages in 16 states will be Rs 294.3 billion, including the amount for viability gap funding.
As per industry sources, these 16 states are Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.
Additionally, the Cabinet has also approved extending BharatNet to cover all inhabited villages in the remaining states and UTs whose modalities will be separately worked out by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
