Cabinet approves additional ₹19,041 crore for BharatNet PPP.

The Cabinet recently accorded approval for revised implementation strategy of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in 16 States for ₹19,041 crore.

The development comes after Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman recently announced the additional outlay for the project. The total outlay will now be ₹61,109 crore, including the ₹42,068 crore approved in 2017, she had said.

The States covered under the approval are Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. An estimated 3.61 lakh villages including Gram Panchayats (GPs) will be covered.

The revised strategy also includes creation, upgradation, operation, maintenance and utilisation of BharatNet by the concessionaire who will be selected by a international competitive bidding, a government statement said.

The Cabinet also accorded an in-principle approval for extending BharatNet to cover all villages in the remaining States and UTs. The Department of Telecommunication will separately work out the modalities for these States/ UTs.

At a briefing after the Cabinet meeting, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Electronics and IT, and Communications, said the decision to involve private players was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 15, 2020 that around six-lakh villages in the country will be connected with broadband within 1,000 days. As of May 31, out of the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, 1,56,223 have been connected with broadband through optical fibre network.

“The PPP model will leverage private sector efficiency and is expected to result in faster roll-out of BharatNet,” Prasad said.

The selected concessionaire (private sector partner) is expected to provide reliable, high speed broadband services as per pre-defined services level agreement. Extension of reach of BharatNet will enable better access of e-services offered by various Central and State government agencies.

It will also enable online education, telemedicine, skill development, e-commerce and other applications of broadband. It is expected that revenue will be generated from different sources including proliferation of broadband connections to individuals and institutions, sale of dark fibre, fiberisation of mobile towers and e-commerce.

HBL