BharatNet is an ambitious project of the Government of India to provide broadband connectivity to all village panchayats in the country. Under phase II of this project all the 12,524 Village Panchayats in Tamil Nadu are planned to be covered for internet connectivity.
Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corp signs agreement for BharatNet project implementation
Project aims at providing 1 Gbps bandwidth connectivity to all Gram Panchayats
This project intends to provide affordable and quality digital services, e-education, telemedicine and triple-play services to all village panchayats besides providing high-speed internet services to government offices, schools, colleges and business enterprises.
Talking to media persons here, Tamilnadu information minister Thangaraj said the project, once implemented, will resolve the connectivity problems faced by rural students and simplify e-governance.
Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Ltd (TANFINET) on Wednesday signed the Master Service Agreement for the implementation of BharatNet Project in Tamil Nadu (two packages) with various system integrators.
The project aims at providing 1 Gbps bandwidth connectivity to all Gram Panchayats.
TANFINET is a special purpose vehicle implementing the BharatNet project in Tamil Nadu at a total cost of ₹1,815 crore.
Once implemented this infrastructure enables to provide affordable but quality “digital” services, e-education, telemedicine and triple-play services to all Gram Panchayats.
It also aims to provide high speed internet services to government offices, schools, colleges and business enterprises.
By providing such services, the project augments the delivery of government services and generates employment in rural areas, the minister said.
It signed the agreement with L&T (for Package C); ITI Ltd (Package D) and Third-Party Agency BECIL in the presence of Information Technology minister T Mano Thangaraj and IT Secretary Neeraj Mittal.
Later talking to newspersons, the minister said that there was a delay in starting the BharatNet Project as the tender issued in the previous AIADMK government was cancelled and a new tender was issued.
After the disposal of the pending litigations in Package A and Package B, the project will be implemented in all the 12,525 Gram Panchayats in Tamil Nadu, he said.
The project will cover Gram Panchayats through optical fibre cable with high-speed bandwidth connectivity.
To implement the project, four packages -A, B, C and D were formed district wise and four system integrators were identified, one for each package, along with a Third-Party Agency (TPA) to inspect and audit the implementation.
The Package C will cover 3,326 Gram Panchayats in Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Thiruvarur, Pudukottai, Namakkal, Karur, Coimbatore, Tiruppur and Tiruchirappalli districts.
The Package D will cover 3,103 Gram Panchayats in Kanyakumari, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Theni, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Dindigul, Sivagangai districts, he said.
Memorandum of Understanding has been signed between State Government and Government of India in New Delhi on 26.12.2017 for implementation of BharatNet-II in Tamil Nadu, which connects 12524 villages in Tamil Nadu through 11/33 KV TNEB Poles except for villages in coastal blocks where the cables are to be laid underground.
Previously union government had cancelled a Rs 1,950 crore tender floated by the previous AIADMK regime for BharatNet project following alleged irregularities.
The Present ruling party DMK then had filed a petition in the Madras High Court against former chief minister Edappadi K Palaniswami and then revenue minister R B Udayakumar, alleging irregularities in the implementation of packages A and B of the BharatNet project.
