Kerala to be first state to be fully connected under govt's NOFN project

The process to connect districts, to be completed by March, will begin on Monday

Kerala would be the first state to be fully covered by the government’s national optical fibre network (NOFN) project, under which it aimed to connect 50,000 villages by the end of this year, department of telecommunications (DoT) officials said on Friday.

Kerala will be fully connected under NOFN by March this year. Information Technology & Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will on Monday launch the process for connecting the first district in the state.

The project, envisioned in 2011, aims to connect a total of 250,000 villages by the end of 2016. For this, about 700,000 km of optical fibre is to be laid. The total cost for this programme, initially estimated at Rs 20,000 crore, has been increased to Rs 30,000 crore.

The project, part of the government’s ‘Digital India’ initiative, is also likely to push e-commerce in the country in a big way by take high-speed broadband connectivity to 250,000 gram panchayats. 

Prasad had earlier said: “As internet will reach villages and all cities, the people there will go online to shop for things which will lead to expansion of e-commerce and opening up of more warehouses. This will lead to creation of more jobs and growth in the economy.”