The change of strategy, which would be articulated in a Cabinet note shortly, has been necessitated, as the project, which aims at connecting 2.5 lakh villages through the optic fibre, has not shown much progress due to lack of coordination among the public sector agencies currently executing it.
Officials from the department of telecommunications say under the new plan, the entire country would be divided into zones and each one would be given out to private agencies to lay the network.
In this outsourcing model, the role of the government would be only supervisory, setting benchmarks, providing incentives for completion of work on time and levying penalties in case of delays.
The completion of the project on time is crucial, as it is key to the success of the Digital India programme articulated by the PM.
Currently, the National Optic Fibre Network project involves Bharat Broadband Nigam, a subsidiary of state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), PowerGrid and RailTel, which have been allocated work in the ratio of 70:15:15.
As on October 31, BSNL, PowerGrid and Railtel have invited bids for supply of 2.67 lakh kilometres of ducting optic fibre cable.
The work has started in 455 blocks of the total 6,533 blocks earmarked for the first phase. Similarly, these three agencies have invited bids for trenching and laying of optic fibre for 2,728 blocks covering 90,000 panchayats. A senior BSNL official said the process of completion of bidding will take at least two months.
“This is a huge target and the entire machinery at the department of telecommunications has gone into a tizzy. This is one of the reasons why department of telecommunications wants to involve private players for the National Optic Fibre Network project,” an official from the department of telecommunications said.
The National Optic Fibre Network project, being executed in three phases, will lay about 7 lakh kilometres of optical fibre network to connect all village panchayats by high speed broadband services.
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