Optic fibre plan

The government today announced a Rs 1,000 crore plan for connecting all state government offices down to the block level through a fibre optic network for facilitating communication.

"This plan will set up the core network infrastructure for the National e-Governance Action plan (NEGAP) focused on delivery of services to citizens and businesses. These networks will be instrumental in government to government (G2G) communication and could also be used for other developmental activities like education and health," Minister for Communications and Information Technology Dayanadhi Maran said while announcing the plan.

The central government would bear all capital expenses to connect state government offices with high-speed reliable network with a minimum capacity of 2Mbps. The bandwidth costs, however, will be borne by the states.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which had fibre lines down to the block level, had agreed to provide 90 per cent discount to the state governments signing a commercial agreement with it to buy all telecom services, the minister said.

Department of Information Technology (DIT) and National Informatics Centre (NIC) will be the implementing agency for the project.

"The state government will, however, have the freedom to choose the agency it wants to hand over the implementation of state area wide networks (SWAN)," Maran said.

Under the plan, States are required to furnish proposals to DIT for establishment of SWANs. A state would be needed to have undertaken implementation of at least three major statewide e-governance projects, with atleast one rolled out, in order to be eligible for funding support.

NIC will issue the guidelines for security, standardization, interoperability and interconnect requirements. The states will also be needed to enter into Service Level Agree ments, which will ensure quality and reliability.