New Delhi: The parliamentary standing committee on information technology has shown its displeasure at the slow pace at which BSNL, RailTel and PGCIL implemented the first phase of BharatNet project to bring internet connectivity to rural India, a project considered key to realising Modi government’s Digital India vision.
In a report to be presented to Lok Sabha this Saturday, the IT standing committee said, “The way the project [BharatNet] had been implemented by the 3 CPSUs [Central Public Sector Undertaking] clearly indicated that they lacked competency and sufficient expertise to implement the project of this size. It simply gives an impression that the task could have been performed better by any other private agencies/global companies interested with the project.”
Three CPSUs were chosen to lay fiber under phase I of the project — Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), RailTel, a telecom infrastructure provider that’s tied to Indian Railways, and the Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL), or commonly referred to as PowerGrid.
The committee’s criticism of the CPSUs was related to how they implemented the first phase of BharatNet. Initially called the National Optical Fibre Network, BharatNet was approved by the government in October 2011.
The project’s aim is to bring internet connectivity to all 2.50 lakh gram panchayats in India through optical fiber to provide a faster, more reliable internet connection.
On how important BharatNet is to Digital India, the committee noted: “BharatNet is the backbone and important pillar of ‘Digital India’ and the success of Digital India programme squarely rests on the success of BharatNet project.”
The committee added that the Digital India program was launched to bring “knowledge economy and to transform the entire concept of governance by making it more transparent and accessible to the citizen”.
