All the Gram Panchayats in the country will be covered under the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) scheme. The project is to be completed in two years’ time.
The Government had approved the scheme for creation of NOFN on 25th October 2011, for providing Broadband connectivity to all Gram Panchayats through Optical Fibre Cable. The connectivity to Gram panchayats will be provided through this network for establishing e-governance.
NOFN project will be executed by a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) i.e. Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), a company incorporated under Indian Companies Act 1956, fully owned by Central Government, with equity participation from Government, BSNL, Railtel and Powergrid. The Company has been incorporated on 25.2.2012 for this purpose. Presently, the pilots are being conducted in Paravada block of Vishakhapatnam district in Andhra Pradesh. Arian block of Ajmer district in Rajasthan and Panisagar block of North Tripura district in Tripura.
The Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sh Milind Deora gave this information in the Rajya Sabha recently.
