To provide high-speed internet connectivity in rural areas, the Punjab Government has initiated a project to connect all villages with optical fibre network.
The State cabinet has already approved to provide right of way for implementation of this project which would indirectly give a boost to the state GDP, said a spokesperson of the State Governance Reforms Department on Thursday. A tripartite MoU had been signed between Punjab, Union Government and Bharat Broadband Network ltd (BBNl) to transform villages into e-villages under this project, the spokesman said.
The initiative would also help to bridge the digital gap between rural and urban areas and provide e-services to all gram panchayats. As a pilot project, BBNl had selected 67 blocks covering 6000 villages to connect with Optical Fiber Network in the first phase. The project would be completed by utilising existing fibers of PSUs like BSNl, Railtel and power grid besides laying incremental fibre to connect to gram panchayats wherever necessary.
At present, OFC (Optical Fibre Network) connectivity is available in all districts and head quarters which would further connect all blocks and sub divisions including rural areas, the spokesperson said. He stressed that after accomplishment of this project, availability of all citizen centric services through rural and urban Sewa Kendras would be within reach of every inhabitant of the State. “Besides other communication services, villagers could also avail IPTV having HDTV and range of voice telephony services, video conferencing, video calls etc through this network,” he said.