The Union Cabinet on June 30, 2021, approved the revised implementation strategy of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode in 16 states of the country.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, Union Minister Communications, Electronics and IT said, “The revised strategy also includes creation, upgrading, operation, maintenance and utilization of BharatNet by the concessionaire who will be selected by a competitive international bidding process.”
A maximum Viability Gap Funding (VGF) of Rs 19,041 crores has been approved for the BharatNet PPP model.
What is BharatNet?
•BharatNet is the world’s largest rural broadband project using optical fiber. The project was implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) by the Department of Telecommunication under the Ministry of Communications.
•Initially, the project was launched as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) in 2011 and later renamed to BharatNet in 2015.
•The highly scalable rural broadband project will be offered to all inhabited villages beyond Gram Panchayats (GPs) across 16 states in India.
•The revised strategy of BharatNet will include the creation, upgrading, operation, maintenance, and utilization of the rural broadband project by the concessionaire who will be selected by a competitive international bidding process.
Which are the 16 states covered under BharatNet?
•Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Haryana, Tripura, Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Punjab, and West Bengal are the 16 states to be covered under BharatNet.
•Under these 16 states, the BharatNet project will be offered across approximately 3.61 lakh villages including Gram Panchayats in the country.
•The Union Cabinet has also approved extending BharatNet to all inhabited villages in the remaining States and UTs in the country. Department of Telecommunication will separately work on the modalities for these states and UTs.
How will villages benefit from BharatNet?
•A reliable, quality, high-speed broadband under the BharatNet will enable villages in accessing e-services being offered by several states and central government agencies.
•The project will further enable access to telemedicine, online education, e-commerce, skill development, and other applications.
•Such proliferation of BharatNet in rural areas will help in bridging the rural-urban divide of digital access and move towards achieving Digital India.
Key benefits of BharatNet PPP Model
•The expansion of the BharatNet broadband project is expected to increase direct and indirect employment.
•The BharatNet PPP Model will help to harness the Private Sector for maintenance, operation, utilization, and revenue generation that would in turn is expected to speed up the rollout of BharatNet.
•The selected concessionaire is expected to provide high-speed, reliable broadband services as per the pre-defined Services Level Agreement (SLA).
•The BharatNet PPP Model will offer consumer-friendly advantages including
(i) use of innovative technology by the concessionaire for the consumers to offer quick connectivity to consumers,
(ii) faster deployment of the network,
(iii) high quality of services to consumers,
(iv) competitive tariffs for services, and
(v) access to all online services multimedia services and Over-the-top (OTT) services.
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