Thirteen states, 3 UTs sign tripartite agreements for digital highway

Thirteen state governments and three union territories today signed tripartite memorandums of understanding for free right of way (RoW) with the central government and Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL - the SPV) that would ''bring government at the doors of the common man''.

The National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) -- a project, which would connect all the 2,50,000 gram panchayats in the country through optical fibre cable (OFC) in two years will bring a paradigm shift in the way India works, minister for communications and IT Kapil Sibal said at the function.

Calling it the "end of distance'', the minister said instead of people reaching out to the government the government would be reaching out to the people through the virtual highway.

However, he said the content that would be ''riding'' the digital freeway would be equally important, and its success would lie on it being accessible and affordable to the common man. He said it was up to the state governments to digitise all data, and make it interoperable not just within the state but also throughout the country.

As per the MoU signed today the optical fibre network would cover 21,693 panchayats in Andhra Pradesh, 1,756 panchayats in Arunachal Pradesh, 9,770 panchayats in Chhattisgarh, 11 Panchayats in the union territory of Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 14 panchayats in Daman and Diu, 4,423 [panchayats in Jharkhand, 5,631 panchayats in Karnataka, 977 villages in Kerala, 23,024 panchayats in Madhya Pradesh, 2,795 panchayats in Manipur, 776 panchayats in Mizoram, 98 panchayats in Puducherry, 9,192 panchayats in Rajasthan, 1,038 panchayats in Tripura, 51,974 panchayats in Uttar Pradesh and 7,555 panchayats in Uttarkhand – a total of 140,727 panchayats across these states and union territories.

The central government, will fund the project through Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), while the state governments would provide free right of way for laying OFC.