To digitally connect all villages, govt allocates another Rs 19,041 cr

New Delhi: The government has allocated an additional Rs 19,041 crore for the BharatNet project that will connect all villages with optic fibre-based network for delivery of internet services.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced this while unveiling the financial assistance package on Monday.

According to the Minister, the Rs 19,041 crore for broadband to every village through BharatNet pubic private partnership model has been earmarked as part of the Digital India programme.

Of the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats, 1,56,223 Gram Panchayats have been made service ready by May 31, 2021.The additional outlay will be used to link the rest.

"It is proposed to implement BharatNet in PPP model in 16 States (bundled into 9 packages) on viability gap funding basis. For this, an additional Rs 19,041 crore will be provided," says the government.

The total outlay under BharatNet will thus be Rs 61,109 crore.

This will enable expansion and upgradation of BharatNet to cover all Panchayats and inhabited villages, it added.

BharatNet was originally conceived by the Manmohan Singh government in 2011. But it is the Narendra Modi government which has pushed the programme ahead. In August 15 last year, Modi announced that his administration would connect all inhabited villages in 1,000 days. (UNI)