Kolkata: Implementation of the Centre’s Bharat Net project in West Bengal has gathered significant momentum over the past month after the state govt granted free ‘Right of Way’ (RoW) permission to the implementing agency, BSNL. The waiver has removed a major hurdle in laying optical fibre cables, enabling work to progress at a much faster pace across the state.
CGM Kolkata Telephones and West Bengal Telecom Circle of BSNL said, “In May, we signed an MoU with the state govt for rolling out the amended Bharat Net programme in Bengal. In the last month we trenched 450 km for laying optical fibre cable, which is a significant achievement.”
In the next three years, BSNL has set a target of laying 18,000 km of cable from block level to gram panchayats and another 60,000 km to connect 32,000 non-GP villages with high-speed broadband connectivity. Over 2,600 gram panchayats are now connected through the Bharat Net in Bengal.