Though the government is promoting the concept of public-private partnership (PPP) in all sectors, it has decided to keep crucial sectors of the broadband network to be rolled out over the next few years under its control.
Bulk of this roll out will be for the Digital India plan of connecting all panchayats with broadband and for closed user group networks exclusively for government organisations.
Speaking at an industry function, Telecom Secretary Rakesh Garg said the government planned to spend around Rs.33,000 crore over the next three years on various broadband projects with the bulk of funds, Rs.21,000 crore, to be earmarked for the broadband backbone for the Digital India project which aims to bring government services to the doorstep of every person by connecting all the 2.5 lakh village panchayats by March 2017.
Mr. Garg said a note had been sent to the Expenditure Finance Committee for clearance after which it would be placed before the Cabinet for final nod. He was confident of the government meeting its target of connecting 50,000 village panchayats by the end of the current fiscal.
