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National broadband rollout plan may miss March deadline

Only 10-15,000 villages may be completed against target of 59,000 villages under Phase I

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Pradeep Kumar Agarwal, director (planning) of Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), a special purpose vehicle (SPV), is a worried man.

It's just 10 weeks for the Phase 1 deadline of March 31 for National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN), a pet project of the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). Looking at progress of work it could fall way behind the target unless the pace is accelerated.

It seems like the central public sector undertakings (CPSUs) will be able to cover merely 10,000-15,000 gram panchayats (GPs) against the target of 59,000 GPs (villages).

Agarwal raised this concern in a letter written to the heads of the three CPSUs -- BSNL, RailTel and PGCIL – responsible for the execution of the project.

"It may kindly be noted that in spite of regular follow-up at all levels there is a marginal increase in rate of progress. This rate of progress may ultimately provide connectivity to 10,000 to 15,000 GPs only as against target of 59,000 GPs promised by CPSUs. The present rate of progress need to be scaled multiple times per week to meet the target of Phase I," states the letter written to BSNL CMD A N Rai, RailTel CMD R K Bahuguna and PowerGrid Corporation Ltd (PGCIL) ED Ashwani Jain on January 18.

"Performance continues to be extremely slow which needs immediate attention of all three executing agencies as well as field units of BBNL. It is evident that CPSUs have to take major action to mobilise this work on highest priority and increase speed multiple times to achieve Phase I target," he noted.

The NOFN project, which was cleared by the earlier government in 2011, is crucial in achieving the Digital India initiative. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has advanced its timeline by nine months from December 2016 to March 2016.

The project has been moving at a snail's speed due to many procedural delays and non-availability of material for its completion.

"The non-availability of PLB (permanently lubricated) duct in field and slow progress of trenching and pipe laying needs to be addressed," wrote Agarwal in his mail.

As per the project roll-out plan of the government, work in 59,000 GPs need to be completed in Phase I by March 31 this year. In the Phase II and III, which has to be completed by March, 2016, all the 2.5 lakh GPs will be connected through the NOFN.

The execution work of the NOFN has been entrusted to three CPSUs – BSNL, RailTel and PGCIL – while technical support will be provided by Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) and National Informatics Centre (NIC). BBNL was created for central procurement of optical fibre cable (OFC) and electronic equipment.

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