4.12.12

Of Rural E-connectivity....


The UPA-II government is all set to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across the country with broadband connectivity within a year with a view to improve public delivery mechanism. The pilot project has been kicked off at Arain gram panchayat block samiti in Ajmer district.
“To accelerate the reach of connectivity and to enhance development and innovation at the grassroots, there is a plan to provide optic fibre-based broadband connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country,” said Anupam Srivastava, senior general manager, BSNL.
At an average of 2 km fibre per village, the project entails laying down around 5 lakh km of fibre. The project is financed by the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund, where 5% revenues of all telecom companies are pooled in to fund ventures that telecom services to people.
“The deadline for the project is December 2013 and a special purpose vehicle SPV Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd has already been readied to implement it,” said Srivastava.
“The state government would provide the required number of computers in the panchayats. There are 30 gram panchayats that have been shortlisted and we are working with specific focus on e-education, e-medicine and e-sports with 50-60 schools. This would leapfrog development at the grassroots’ level,” he said.

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