BSNL has undertaken an ambitious Rs 20,000 crore project to establish telecom links in all villages across India.AGARTALA: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has undertaken an ambitious Rs 20,000 crore project to establish telecom links in all villages across India and to take e-governance to rural and far-flung areas in the next two years, a BSNL official said here Sunday.
"The Rs 20,000 crore project for the creation of a 'National Optical Fibre Network' (NOFN) for providing internet and other telecommunications connectivity to villages has been launched recently. It would be completed by the next two years," BSNL CMD R.K. Upadhyaya told reporters.
"Once the NOFN was created, it would help in offering governance, banking and health and other basic services online up to the villages and rural areas," he said.
According to him, the tele-density in urban areas in India is almost 100 percent while in the rural areas, it is 37 percent. "After NOFN, the existing tele-density would be increased to a great extent in the rural areas," said Upadhyaya.
He said BSNL accounts to 80 percent of landline and 90 percent of broadband connections in the country, while around 30 percent of the nation's mobile connections are covered by BSNL.
During the past four years, the BSNL could not procure any GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) equipment, he said, adding that tenders have been issued recently for 15 million GSM line connections.
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