Chhattisgarh is missing in the list of Telecom Service Area wise Rural Broadband subscriber base of various states and union territories listed by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as on December 31, 2015 as per the date available with the Central Government .
As per the data available, the Telecom Service Area with number of subscribers (in millions) is as follows — Andhra Pradesh 3.33,Assam 0.76, Bihar 1.79,Delhi 0.45,Gujarat 1.81,Haryana 0.92,Himachal Pradesh 0.70, Jammu & Kashmir 0.59,Karnataka 1.96,Kerala 3.11,Kolkata 0.28,Madhya Pradesh 0.89,Maharashtra 2.76, Mumbai 0.12,North East 0.53,Orissa 0.61,Punjab 1.03,Rajasthan 1.75,Tamil Nadu 3.10,UP (East) 1.46,UP (West) 1.11,West Bengal ,2.04.
Notably, the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)/BharatNet project is planned to establish network infrastructure to connect all the Gram Panchayats (2.5 lakh) in the country by laying incremental fibre to bridge the connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats (GPs) and Blocks or through radio/satellite for providing broadband connectivity, officials stated.
It is being implemented through a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), Bharat Broadband Network limited (BBNl), which was established on 25.02.2012 with an objective to create, operate, maintain and manage National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) infrastructure. Under this project, at least 100 Mbps bandwidth has to be provided in all the estimated 2.5 lakh GPs for utilization by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis including Internet Service Providers. As on May 7, 2016, Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) has been laid in 1, 12,883 Kms and 50,465 GPs have been connected with OFC in the country. Out of these, 6,849 GPs have been provided with broadband connectivity.
On the other hand, notably, more than 3,000 offices of the Chhattisgarh Government are now connected to the digital highway under the State Government’s State Wide Area Network (SWAN) project launched to bring the benefits of e-connectivity to the general public. As a result, video conferencing is now possible from 27 district collectorates including the Mantralaya in the State. The Government had already developed the video conferencing system between many district collectorates and janpad panchayat offices.
It may be mentioned here that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh had inaugurated the e-governance project made operational through ‘Chhattisgarh Infotech and Biotech Promotion Society (CHIPS) on April 6, 2010.
The Central Government had selected CHiPS as the nodel agency to implement the e-Governance projects.
The SWAN project provides both ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ connectivity. All the State’s offices are being connected through ‘horizontal connectivity’ under which all three technologies—WiMAX, VSAT and leased lines are being utilised.
Under ‘vertical connectivity’, 133 of the 146 development blocks have been connected through WiMAX and 15 have been connected through VSAT.
The e-connectivity system had helped connect the remotest region of the State.
In the villages where it was not possible to provide connectivity by the telecom operators, the government had facilitated connectivity through SWAN project. This has helped easier conduct of administrative work and also provision of various services to general public.
The e-connectivity system has helped safer exchange of information between various Government offices resulting in lesser travel by officials on Government work. The system has also brought down costs incurred on correspondence, courier and postal services and telephonic conversation. The State Government had been managing its various e-governance projects through e-connectivity including its web portal.
The State’s universities, medical colleges and government engineering colleges had also been connected through the ‘National Knowledge Network’ which has helped students speedily download information at the global level.