CHENNAI: The Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) laying, under the BharatNet project, to connect all the 12,525 gram panchayats across the State will be completed at the end of this year.

The optical fibre cable laying will allow the service providers to extend high-speed broadband connectivity to rural areas. This installation will ensure that facilities like telemedicine, tele-education, and dissemination of new technologies are made available for people in far-flung areas.

BharatNet, a centrally sponsored project, is currently being implemented by the state-owned Tamil Nadu Fibrenet Corporation (TANFINET), a branch of the Information Technology (IT) Department, at an approved cost of Rs 1815.31 crore.

A senior official from the IT Department told DT Next that under this project, OFC for 57,500 plus Km is being laid to connect all the 12,525 gram panchayats of the State. “One Gbps bandwidth is envisaged to be provided in the Gram Panchayats and it will be scaled up as required,” the official added.

Stating that the on-field implementation of the BharatNet phase-II project is going on across the districts, he said, “More than 2,000 gram panchayats of the State have been connected through OFC to the nearest block so far and they are made visible in the Network Operation Centre (NOC) at Chennai.”

Pointing out that the Master Service Agreement (MSA) was executed with the system integrators towards the implementation of the BharatNet Phase-II project in Tamil Nadu, the official said, “The project aiming to cover all the village panchayats in the State is expected to be completed by this December.”