The government has laid optical fibre in about 36,738 gram panchayats till January 17 as it targets to roll out cables in 50,000 panchayats by March.
The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project, which plans to provide high speed broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats, has witnessed some pace in recent months.
In a bid to fast-track the project, the government has renamed it to BharatNet and also enlarged the scope of providing connectivity.
According to an official in Department of Telecom (DoT), the pace of work has increased in the last few months and till January 17, PLB ducts have been laid in 47,467 gram panchayats whereas optic fibre cable has been laid in 36,738 panchayats.
The official said laying of cables has doubled in the current fiscal. "In 2014-15, 30,825 kilo metre of optic fibre has been laid while in the current fiscal till January 17, 54,808 kilo metre of cable has been laid," the official said.
The project, which has witnessed several delays, was initially approved in 2011 for facilitating at least 100 Mbps bandwidth in all the estimated 2,50,000 village panchayats with an outlay of about Rs 20,100 crore.
The present NDA government had fixed this deadline for completing the roll out of optical fibre in a phased manner by December 2016.
