Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin on Thursday inaugurated the commencement of work to lay the Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) of the BharatNet project at an estimated cost of Rs 1,627.83 crore in the state.
The work at Muthalakurichi village in the southern district of Kanyakumari was inaugurated in the presence of Information Technology & Digital Services Minister T Mano Thangaraj, Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu and IT secretary Neeraj Mittal, at a function held at the secretariat here.
The project, approved by the Central government, aims to provide a minimum scalable bandwidth of 1 Gbps to all the 12,525 village panchayats in the state. It would provide to the public digital services at low cost, e-education, tele-medicine and triple play services.
Further, it would ensure high speed internet for government offices, schools, colleges and industrial establishments and provide government services at people’s doorstep. “The initiative would ensure more jobs in the rural areas and thereby improve the rural economy,” an official release here said.
The implementation of the BharatNet project through the Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Ltd (TANFINET) has been divided into four packages – A, B, C and D and one system integrator for each package and Third Party Agency (TPA) has been selected.
TANFINET, under the state Information Technology and Digital Services department, entered into a Master Service Agreement (MSA) with Pace Digitek Infra Pvt Ltd recently to implement the Package B of the BharatNet Phase II in Tamil Nadu.
Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur, Vellore, Krishnagiri, Chengalpattu, Chennai (NOC), Ranipet, Tiruppathur and Tiruvannamalai districts come under the Package A. Village panchayats in Villupuram, Erode, Perambalur, Ariyalur, Cuddalore, Dharmapuri, Kallakurichi, Salem and the Nilgiris would be covered under Package B.
Package C covers Nagapattinam, Thanjavur, Tiruvarur, Pudukottai, Namakkal, Karur, Coimbatore, Tirupur, Tiruchirappalli, Mayiladuthurai districts while Package D comprises Kanyakumari, Madurai, Ramanathapuram, Theni, Thoothukudi, Tirunelveli, Virudhunagar, Tenkasi, Dindigul and Sivaganga districts.
“It was immensely pleasant and a moment to cherish forever when Honourable Chief Minister inaugurated the commencement of works for laying of Optical Fibre Cables at Muthalakurichi village, Thuckalay Panchayat Union in my Assembly Constituency of Padmanabhapuram,” Mano Thangaraj tweeted.
