The Gujarat Government has decided to go for complete digitisation of gram panchayats as well as all the State Government offices across the State under National Fibre Optic Network (NFON) — a Central Government project, which aims to connect the entire country up to the village panchayat level with a fibre network.
Not only the Government and panchayat offices, the State Government plans to connect all schools, colleges, hospitals, public utilities with free Wi-Fi facilities in lines with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ vision.
Talking to The Pioneer, a senior official with the State science & technology department said that 14,000 villages and towns in Gujarat would get free Wi-Fi at public places in near future. Besides, there would be availability of cheap internet at private homes and work places, he said, adding that an ambitious project of laying over one lakh kilometer long fibre optic project has been kicked-off in Gujarat in order to expand broadband internet services across the State.
“A joint venture Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company would be floated by the State Government along with the central Government for the purpose. It would ensure fibre-optic connectivity to remotest hamlet in the State, that too one gigabyte data connectivity. In the case of cities and district places the connectivity speed would be more than 10 gigabyte,” said the official.
The registration process of the SPV is expected to be completed in next two months. Though the SPV is a joint venture with the Centre, the ownership of it will rest with the State Government.
Of the 12 fibre optic cable network, six would be auctioned to private players to not only generate income out of it but also allow level playing field to these operators. The State Government aims to complete laying of the fibre optic across the State in next three years.
Despite involvement of private players, the State Government would ensure free internet services or at nominal rates to the people of Gujarat. The business model for the private players would be developed in such a way that their main source of income would be from other value added services which would allow them to give free basic internet services.