Centre Allots Additional Rs 19,041 Crore to BharatNet Project
The Government on Monday announced that an additional amount of Rs 19,041 crore is being provided for the BharatNet project, which is aimed at providing broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh panchayats across the country.
With this, the total outlay for the ambitious scheme will now be Rs 61,109 crore including the already approved amount of Rs 42,068 crore in 2017. This announcement was made by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Expansion and upgradation of BharatNet will cover all gram panchayats and inhabited villages. Out of the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 1,56,223 of them have been made service ready by May 31, 2021, official sources said.
In his Independence Day speech last year, the Prime Minister had announced that broadband connectivity to all inhabited villages will be provided in 1,000 days.
The BharatNet project is being implemented under the public private partnership (PPP) model in 16 states (bundled into nine packages) on viability gap funding basis.
