UP, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh likely to get funds for optical fibre cables

Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh may be among the next set of states in line to receive funds under a central grant for laying optical fibre cable (OFC) networks, officials said.

The Centre provides financial assistance to states in the form of 50-year interest-free loans for capital investment projects. Of the total Rs 1 trillion allocated for the scheme, Rs 3,000 crore has been earmarked, and made available to states for capital projects on the OFC network. The Department of Telecom (DoT) recently approved funds for Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Karnataka.

“A number of states have submitted applications for receiving the OFC grant. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh seem to satisfy the criteria. We are looking into their applications,” a DoT official said. The department examines the eligibility of the state and vets the list of statewide projects for which funds are sought.

The maximum amount of incentives available to each state is Rs 300 crore. The funds are granted on a first-come-first-served basis, keeping in mind certain criteria which include ensuring that the right of way policy or rules of the state are allied with the Centre, while the state is on boarded on the national right of way portal.

States also have to ensure that no right of way applications are pending from Telecommunications Service Providers and internet service providers beyond 60 days, on the date of submission of request for providing funds under this scheme.

Boosting Bharatnet

Officials said the applications of a number of states had fallen foul of one criteria in particular. States have to ensure that there is no duplication of the existing Bharatnet project in setting up OFC networks. 

“Existing OFC network of telecom licensees and infrastructure providers should be utilised by the state government whenever available or feasible. But some states have sought funds for laying OFCs in areas where work on the Bharatnet project has already created relevant infrastructure,” the official said.

The funds are meant to extend and not supplant Bharatnet, the government’s ambitious nation-wide broadband network to rural areas. Bharatnet aims to establish a highly scalable network infrastructure for on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households, in rural India.

According to DoT, the funds are used to connect government institutions like school, health centres, police stations, anganwadis, and krishi vikas kendras with the Bharatnet network with the help of OFCs. According to the government, only five dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fiber cable before 2014. 

In the past five years, nearly 150,000 gram panchayats have been connected with optical fiber cable. In August 2020, the government announced that every village in the country would be connected via OFCs.