With Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu reiterating his resolve to bring in an IT revolution in the State, the government now has a Herculean task of ensuring internet connectivity of at least 10 to 15 Mbps bandwidth to 12 million households at a cost of Rs. 150 per month, apart from the on-demand 100 Mbps connection to every business venture in the next few years.
As part of the optic fibre grid project, the government wants to bridge the digital divide and set up a new State Data Centre to ensure last mile connectivity to all gram panchayats, making all G2C (government to citizen), G2B (government to business) and G2E (government to employee) services available online and on cellphones.
The Digital Andhra Pradesh plan aims at redesigning the service delivery infrastructure and ensuring optic fibre connectivity to villages on fast-track mode, by developing a grid. With the Centre sanctioning optic fibre grid as a pilot project, the government will shortly set up an Optic Fibre Grid Corporation to execute the ambitious plan.
The government has plans to set up a 65,000-km optic fibre grid, one of the longest in the country, under the National Optic Fibre Network (NOFN), with an end-to-end network right from the cities to the grassroots.
The project is estimated to cost the exchequer around Rs. 6,000 crore, with a capital expenditure of Rs. 3,843 crore and operation cost of Rs.2,140 crore over the next 10 years. “Once the connectivity is established, investments will start flowing to both rural and urban areas,” Infrastructure and Investment Department Principal Secretary Ajay Jain says.
Further, in an attempt to encourage entrepreneurship using IT tools, the government has signed an MoU with internet giant Google in September last year to promote usage of Telugu on Internet, partner with academic institutions to develop content and enable women entrepreneurs particularly SHGs to learn how to run business online.
Work is expected to be launched shortly for ensuring proper use of existing fibres of the BSNL, Railtel and Power Grid and to lay incremental fibre to offer higher bandwidth. As part of Digital India Campaign, a pilot project has also been launched to cover Parawada mandal near here under the Bharat Broadband Network Ltd. Power Grid has laid the cables to provide the required bandwidth.
(Reporting by
Santosh Patnaik)
