Odisha Govt Puts Project On High Speed Internet To Panchayats On Fast Track

Bhubaneswar: The state government has put high speed internet connectivity to gram panchayats on fast track in order to ensure application of IT in governance transformation. It was revealed at a review meeting of State Level Implementation Committee on Bharat Net project held on digital mode here on Wednesday.

Speaking at the meeting, chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mohapatra said, “In today’s context, internet connectivity is a basic requirement for maintaining high growth rate in rural sector. It will help the process of people’s empowerment and capacity building besides adding to quality education and health services. Panchayats can also be connected through video conferencing”.

It was decided that all government offices including schools, medicals, banks and common service centers would access the broad band connectivity. The telemedicine centres and agriculture kiosks would be connected for facilitating health care, e-learning and profitable agri-commerce. Mohapatra directed to complete the physical work by end of May.

Secretary, Electronics and Telecommunication (E & IT) Manoj Kumar Mishra said with completion of the work, OCAC would be the chief bandwidth provider in remote areas.

He further said as per the data, in the first phase of the project, 3810 GPs and 181 blocks have been taken up. As of now, 3770 GPs and 175 blocks have been connected. The work for connecting other 2954 GPs and 133 blocks of 12 districts has been taken up under phase II. Under this phase, around 20,000 km of areal optical fiber will be drawn and the work of 13,400 km has been completed. Out of the total 3087 connection points, ‘end to end testing’ has been conducted in 1630 points, he added.

The Phase-II work is being executed under the joint collaboration of OCAC, OPTCL and Tarasoft. “This infrastructure will bring all the GPs within the scope of SWAN network. Its dark fibers can also be hired to the telecom and internet service providers on commercial basis,” he said.

Principal Secretary Energy NB Dhal, Principal Secretary Agriculture and Farmers’ Empowerment and Chairman OPTCL Saurabh Garg, Principal Secretary Home Sanjeeb Chopra, Principal Secretary Panchayati Raj and Drinking Water Deo Ranjan Kumar Singh, Special Secretary IT Manoj Patnaik, Joint Secretary Sujit Mallick along with senior officers of OCAC, OPTCL and concerned departments participated in the discussion.