NewZNew (Chandigarh) : With a view to provide high speed internet connectivity having unlimited bandwidth in rural areas, the Punjab Government has initiated a prestigious project to connect all villages with optical fibre network, a state of the art communication technology in the state.

A spokesman of governance reforms department today said the state cabinet had already approved to provide right of way for implementation of this project which would indirectly give a boost to the state GDP.  He informed that a tripartite MOU had been signed between Punjab, Union Government and Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) to transform the villages into e-villages under this project. Adding further he stated that this initiative would also help to bridge the digital gap between rural and urban areas and provide e-services to all gram panchayats.

He said that as a pilot project BBNL had selected 67 blocks covering 6000 villages to connect with Optical Fiber Network in first phase. Divulging the project implementation plan, he said this project would be completed by utilizing existing fibers of PSUs like BSNL, Railtel and power grid besides laying incremental fibre to connect to gram panchayats wherever necessary.

Giving an account of present connectivity, the spokesman said presently OFC (Optical Fibre Network) connectivity was available in all districts and head quarters which would further connect all blocks and sub divisions including rural areas.

He stressed that after accomplishment of this project, availability of all citizen centric services through rural and urban Sewa Kendras would be within reach of every inhabitant of the state. “Besides other communication services, villagers could also avail IPTV having HDTV and range of voice telephony services, video conferencing, video calls etc through this network”, he said.