CHENNAI: After two false starts, when the multi-crore
BharatNet project
had to be scrapped after corruption allegations,
Tamil Nadu finally inked a pact marking the take-off of the project touted as info-highway of the future.
On Wednesday,
Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Limited
(TANFINET) signed the master service agreement for the implementation of the
BharatNet Project in Tamil Nadu with System Integrators -- M/s L&T (Package C), M/s ITI Ltd (Package D) and Third-Party Agency M/s BECIL -- in the presence of T Mano Thangaraj, minister for information technology.
The Rs 1,815-crore project will cover 12,525 village panchayats in Tamil Nadu through optical fibre cable with high-speed bandwidth connectivity. Tamil Nadu FibreNet Corporation Limited (TANFINET), a special purpose vehicle, is implementing the project in Tamil Nadu at a sanctioned cost of Rs 1,815.3 crore. The project aims to provide 1 Gbps bandwidth connectivity to all village panchayats.
The project got mired in a controversy after the anticorruption NGO – Arappor Iyakkam – flagged violation of tender conditions and alleged tweaking of norms to narrow the competition. It also involved allegations of circumventing the make-in Indian components in the project.
Now, the project is slated to be implemented in four packages, and a third-party agency (TPA) will inspect and audit its implementation.
BharatNet envisages affordable but quality digital services, e-education, telemedicine and triple-play services to all village panchayats of Tamil Nadu. It will also provide high-speed internet services to government offices, schools, colleges and business enterprises.
Minister Mano Thangaraj said that by providing such services, the project augmented the delivery of government services and would generate employment in rural areas.
Neeraj Mittal, principal secretary, department of information technology and A K Kamal Kishore, managing director of Tamil Nadu Fibernet Corporation were among those who participated in the function.