Lok Sabha Question No. 916 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2017-12-20
Subject: Bharat-Net Project
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: R. GOPALAKRISHNAN, K. MARAGATHAM, VINOD KUMAR BOIANAPALLI, CH. MALLA REDDY, SHOBHA KARANDLAJE, PRATHAP SIMHA, RAKSHA NIKHIL KHADSE, RAJESHBHAI NARANBHAI CHUDASAMA, KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR, M. CHANDRAKASI, ALOK SANJAR

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 916 TO BE ANSWERED ON 20 TH      DECEMBER, 2017

## BHARAT-NET PROJECT

916.   SHRI R. GOPALAKRISHNAN: SHRIMATI K. MARAGATHAM: SHRI B. VINOD KUMAR: SHRI CH. MALLA REDDY: KUMARI SHOBHA KARANDLAJE: SHRI PRATHAP SIMHA: SHRIMATI RAKSHATAI KHADSE: SHRI RAJESHBHAI CHUDASAMA: SHRI KAUSHALENDRA KUMAR: SHRI M. CHANDRAKASI: SHRI ALOK SANJAR:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the Bharat-Net  Project  has  been  launched  to  connect  all  Gram Panchayats to provide high speed internet services in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the  details  of  the  norms  for  the  selection  of  Gram  Panchayats  under  the  said programme and the number of Gram Panchayats that have been connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) under the project during each of the last three years and the current year, State/UT-wise along with the number of Gram Panchayats which are yet to be linked, State/UT-wise;
- (c) whether Wi-Fi services are proposed to be provided at public places under the said project and if so, the details thereof;
- (d) whether the people from Gram Panchayats are being provided with quality and affordable internet facility after the introduction of the aforementioned project and if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor;
- (e) whether the Government has taken cognizance of the delay in the progress of the  said  project  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  and  the  reasons  therefor  along  with  the corrective action taken by the Government in this regard; and
- (f) whether  the  Government  has  launched  the  second  phase  of  the  BharatNet Project  and  if  so,  the  details  thereof  including  the  number  of  Gram  Panchayats  that have been connected through OFC in this phase, State/UT-wise along with the details of  the  proposal,  if  any,  regarding  the  involvement of the private sector  in the implementation of the said project?

## ANSWER

## THE MINISTER OF STATE (IC) OF THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS & MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF RAILWAYS (SHRI MANOJ SINHA)

- (a) BharatNet project has been launched for providing Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats (GPs) (approx. 2,50,000) in the country by March 2019.
- (b) All  the  Gram  Panchayats  are  being  connected  in  Phased  manner.  As  on 10.12.2017, total 1,05,831 Gram Panchayats have been connected by OFC. State-wise and year-wise list is given in Annexure-I.
- (c) Yes, they are proposed at all GPs.
- (d) Services under BharatNet are to be provided by Service Providers. Towards this non-discriminatory access of network is to be provided to Service Providers. Subsided tariff for bandwidth has been decided.
- (e) & (f) The Project is to be completed by March, 2019. In the Phase-I to connect 1,00,000 GPs, 1,05, 831 GPs have been connected with OFC. Phase-II of the project has been approved by Cabinet  to connect remaining GPs on July 19, 2017. The project is  to  be  completed  by  March,  2019.    The  total  cost  of  BharatNet  approved  by  the Cabinet  is  Rs  42068  crore.  The  implementation  of  Phase-II  is  to  be  done  with participations of States, Private Sector & CPSU.

Contd…3/-

## Annexure-I

## State/UT-wise number of GPs connected through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC)

| S. No.   | State/UT             | 2014-15   | 2015-16   | 2016-17   | 2017-18 (As on 10.12.2017)   |
|----------|----------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|------------------------------|
|          | Units                | (GPs)     | (GPs)     | (GPs)     | (GPs)                        |
| 1        | Assam                | 193       | 489       | 568       | 98                           |
| 2        | Bihar                | 412       | 1956      | 1845      | 597                          |
| 3        | Chhattisgarh         | 422       | 1123      | 317       | 1456                         |
| 4        | Haryana              | 997       | 2111      | 1918      | 875                          |
| 5        | Jammu &Kashmir       | 0         | 82        | 111       | 47                           |
| 6        | Karnataka            | 2098      | 2905      | 726       | 333                          |
| 7        | Kerala               | 1022      | 107       | 0         | 0                            |
| 8        | Madhya Pradesh       | 547       | 4459      | 6077      | 787                          |
| 9        | Maharashtra          | 669       | 3969      | 6307      | 1962                         |
| 10       | Punjab               | 234       | 2743      | 2989      | 1261                         |
| 11       | Rajasthan            | 1347      | 2321      | 2528      | 987                          |
| 12       | Uttar Pradesh (East) | 1048      | 4708      | 8857      | 2334                         |
| 13       | Uttar Pradesh (West) | 393       | 2284      | 4507      | 1113                         |
| 14       | Uttarakhand          | 204       | 434       | 809       | 16                           |
| 15       | West Bengal          | 159       | 563       | 723       | 466                          |
| 16       | Sikkim               | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0                            |
| 17       | Andaman &Nicobar     | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0                            |
| 18       | Chandigarh           | 11        | 1         | 0         | 0                            |
| 19       | Lakshadweep          | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0                            |
| 20       | Arunachal Pradesh    | 0         | 18        | 77        | 296                          |
| 21       | Nagaland             | 0         | 142       | 216       | 178                          |
| 22       | Manipur              | 0         | 24        | 28        | 167                          |
| 23       | Mizoram              | 0         | 0         | 50        | 41                           |
| 24       | Tripura              | 75        | 417       | 268       | 56                           |
| 25       | Meghalaya            | 0         | 52        | 87        | 74                           |
| 26       | Gujarat              | 343       | 1791      | 1889      | 1184                         |
| 27       | Daman &Diu           | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0                            |
| 28       | Dadar& Nagar Haveli  | 0         | 0         | 0         | 0                            |
| 29       | Puducherry           | 86        | 12        | 0         | 0                            |
| 30       | Andhra Pradesh       | 0         | 0         | 0         | 283                          |
| 31       | Telangana            | 84        | 1301      | 570       | 83                           |
| 32       | Odisha               | 441       | 973       | 1222      | 571                          |
| 33       | Jharkhand            | 170       | 664       | 609       | 488                          |
| 34       | Himachal Pradesh     | 0         | 19        | 106       | 51                           |
| Total    | Total                | 10955     | 35668     | 43404     | 15804                        |

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