Govt to invite private firms to operate, manage BharatNet

BSNL also in fray for project which will connect 250,000 panchayats by March 2017, contract worth about Rs 1,000 crore

The government may bring in private players for outsourcing operations and management (O&M) of its ambitious project BharatNet, which aims to cover the countryside through a broadband network. The contract is estimated to be worth about Rs 1,000 crore; the project, earlier known as the National Optic Fibre Network and expected to be completed by March 2017, will connect 250,000 panchayats with bandwidth of 100 Mbps (megabit per second).

State-run telecom firm BSNL is in the fray, too, as it has offered to do the O&M of the project, a senior official from the ministry of communications and IT told Business Standard.

“BSNL has been laying the optical fibre along with PSU firms. It plans to use it for offering services as well, which makes BSNL a perfect fit for the O&M model but the government is also looking at a tender model where bids will be invited from all,” the official added.

Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), a special purpose vehicle set up by the government in 2012, is responsible for management and operations of BharatNet under administrative control of the information technology and communications ministry. The project executed through three public sector undertakings, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, RailTel and Power Grid Corporation, in a ratio of 70:15:15.

The officials from BBNL, recently, gave a presentation to Minister for Communications and IT Ravi Shankar Prasad on the various models which could be considered for the O&M of BharatNet.

In an interview to Business Standard in December last year, Prasad had said the government would consider private players for marketing. The department is in the process of finalising the marketing strategy for BharatNet.

The project is critical for the Digital India programme but has seen a 75% cost overrun from the initial estimate of Rs 20,000 crore. Approved by the Cabinet in October 2011, the project was to be completed in two years but the deadline has been revised several times because of lack of coordination among implementing agencies and other issues like right of way.

So far, only Kerala, Chandigarh and Puducherry have been connected under BharatNet.

Until June 2014, when the new NDA government came to power, 2,292 km of fibre-optic pipe and 358 km of cable had been laid. By December this year, 106,721 km of fibre-optic pipe and 78,132 km of cable were in place. “We are laying 1,507 km of fibre-optic pipe weekly and 1,713 km of cable. About 81,000 panchayats of the 100,000 targeted for the end of this financial year have been connected. A tender has been finalised for another 81,774 panchayats. About 18 state governments will set up a special purpose vehicle to implement the project across their states,” a government official said.