ITI Ltd. Wins 433 Cr. Order for BharatNet-II in Tamil Nadu
ITI Limited, a state owned firm under the Indian Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, has received an order from Tamil Nadu Fibrenet Corporation Limited (TANFINET) for BharatNet Phase-II for Package D.
According to a release from the company, the contract is valued at ₹ 432.97 Crore approximately and has to be implemented within 360 days. Project commissioning will be followed by 3 years of operations and maintenance services from ITI Ltd.
ITI Ltd’s Scope of Work in BharatNet Phase-II (Package D)
ITI Ltd.’s scope of work in the Contract for Package D of BharatNet Phase II includes planning, survey, supply, installation, commissioning, testing, end-to-end integration, operation and maintenance of Optical Fibre Network (OFN) and Electronics for Broadband connectivity. This will cover ten districts comprising – 109 Blocks; 3,103 Gram Panchayats, and 845 Revenue Villages in Tamil Nadu, providing a minimum of 1 GBPS bandwidth service.
BharatNet-II package D also includes radio connectivity for Gram Panchayats that cannot be connected through optical fibre, implementation of horizontal connectivity to government premises, schools, and primary health centres (PHCs). Around 15,000 KM of optical fibre cable will be laid, including underground and aerial fibre to connect Gram Panchayats with blocks, district centres, and state headquarter.
Speaking on winning the order Mr. Rakesh Mohan Agarwal, Chairman & Managing Director, ITI Limited said “ITI has implemented BharatNet Phase I in several states, and TANFINET project gives us an opportunity to scale up our contribution further. We are focused on assisting Govt. of India in its initiatives like Make-in-India, Digital-India, and Smart City missions”.
What is BharatNet Project?
BharatNet is a project initiated by the Government of India to provide broadband connectivity to all 2.5 lakh gram panchayats of the country (also called Bharat Broadband Network).
The phase 1 of this project called BharatNet Phase-I targeted connecting 1,00,000 village councils (gram panchayats) covering 3,00,000 villages and was completed by December 2017. BharatNet Phase-II is targeted to be completed by 31 March 2023 to connect the remaining 1,50,000 village councils covering 3,25,000 villages in 16 states.
Other BharatNet Projects being Implemented by ITI Ltd.
ITI Limited has gained a lot of experience in executing Optical Fibre Network (OFN) work around the country during implementation of BharatNet-I.
Currently, ITI Ltd. is executing OFN works worth around ₹ 4,500 crore in Maharashtra and Gujarat. ITI Limited is the Project Implementation Agency (PIA) for MahaNet-I (BharatNet Phase II) in Maharashtra worth around ₹ 2,658 Crore. In Gujarat, ITI Limited is executing two packages (A&B) of BharatNet Phase II for Gujarat Fibre Grid Network Ltd (GFGNL).
