Govt cancels BBNL tender of Rs 19,000 cr for connecting villages

Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) has cancelled a Rs 19,000 crore tender for connecting all the villages across 16 states with optical fibre high-speed broadband network services.

Initially, the project was approved in June to roll out an optical fibre network under BharatNet across 16 states in a public-private partnership (PPP) model with a total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.

The government had approved a viability gap fund of Rs 19,041 crore to connect 3.61 lakh villages in 16 states.

The project has been divided into nine packages, and the tenders were floated for each package separately.

An official told the media that some firms participated in the bidding process, the bids were evaluated, but the participants failed to qualify the bidding.

However, the tender will be floated again after taking feedback from the industry. The government is committed to connecting villages with a broadband connection at the earliest.

The government opted for a PPP model after state-owned firms faced challenges in expediting the projects and missed several deadlines.

The BharatNet project received approval in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) to connect all 2.5 lakh panchayats with the optical fibre network by 2013. But now, the project has been extended to 2025.

According to data, more than 1.69 lakh village panchayats have been made service-ready for broadband network services under BharatNet by 31 December 2021.

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