Over 2 lakh gram panchayats service-ready for broadband connectivity: Union minister

NEW DELHI: Over two lakh gram panchayats have been made service-ready under a project that aims to provide affordable high-speed internet to rural India, Minister of State for Panchayati Raj SP Singh Baghel said on Wednesday.

Baghel informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that the BharatNet project is being implemented by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in a phased manner to provide broadband services to all gram panchayats in the country, Baghel said.

The minister said the infrastructure created under the BharatNet project is a national asset, accessible without discrimination to service providers. It can be utilised to provide broadband services such as Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections, leased lines, dark fibre, backhaul to mobile towers, etc.

As of February 2025, 2,14,323 gram panchayats have been made service-ready under the project, Baghel said.

The Union Cabinet, he said, has approved the Amended BharatNet Program (ABP) under the “design, built, operate and maintain” (DBOM) model to upgrade the existing network of BharatNet Phase-I and Phase-II, create a network in around 42,000 gram panchayats that are not yet service-ready and for operation and maintenance for 10 years.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been given the target of providing 1.50 crore FTTH connections to households in the next five years. The timeline for completion of the ABP is March 2027, he added. (PTI)