Govt cancels Rs 19,000-crore BBNL tender for connecting villages

State-owned Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd has cancelled a Rs 19,000-crore tender that was floated for connecting villages across 16 states with an optical fibre-based high-speed broadband network, following the lack of participation of eligible bidders.
 
The project was approved in June last year to roll out an optical fibre network under BharatNet in 16 states in a public-private partnership model with a total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.
 
The Centre had approved a viability gap fund of Rs 19,041 crore for the project that aimed to connect 3.61 lakh villages across 16 states.
 
The project was divided