Chandigarh
5 July 2018
DIVYA AZAD
TATA Projects Limited, one of India’s fastest growing and most admired infrastructure companies, today announced that its `Smart Cities Business Unit’has been awarded Bharat Net project in the State of Chhattisgarh. The INR 3,057 Crore project involves laying of Optical Fibre Network that follows ring architecture with Internet Protocol – Multi Protocol Label Switching (IP-MPLS) technology.
Conceived under the Digital India initiative of Government of India, this project will link 85 Blocks and 5,987 Gram Panchayats across the 27 districts in the State by providing broadband and mobile phone connectivity. Chhattisgarh has India’s lowest mobile network penetration at 29% whereas the national average is 72% *. About 2.6 Crore people of the state will directly benefit with this infrastructure development. Through this project, important services including PDS, 102 (Free Ambulance Service) and 108 (Emergency service) will be effectively executed at Gram Panchayat level. It will bring improvement in the coordination between security agencies, help provide better health facilities, enhance reach of banking services, help education initiatives through online portals and promote digital payments, thereby, bringing rural population closer to the digital economy. The government will be able to manage G2C (Government to Citizen) service and its `schemes / development programs’ due to the increase in the reach of general service centres.
TATA Projects will lay 48 core Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) Network across the state covering 32,466 KMs. After which – High speed broadband between 1Gbps to 10 Gbps will be provided free of cost through WiFi spots at each Gram Panchayat which will enable people to leverage the benefits of internet in their day to day life. The implementation period for the project is 12 Months from starting of work.
Commenting on the project, Mr. Vinayak Deshpande, Managing Director – TATA Projects Limited said, “We are very delighted to receive this prestigious project under the central government’s ambitious Digital India initiative. We are confident that once the project is completed it will help in strengthening the State’s economy and enable local people to lead their lives with much ease.”
