THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)
(a) to (c) The targets and financial outlays/achievements against Eleventh & Twelfth Plans of Department of Telecommunications are fixed scheme-wise and no allocation is made State-wise.
Physical Parameters
Description Targets Eleventh Achievements Targets Twelfth Achievements of Services Five Year Plan Eleventh Five Five Year Plan Twelfth Five Year Plan Year Plan (up to Subscriber 600 million 951.34 million 1200 million 971.01million Base (up to Dec., 2014) Rural 25% 39.26% 70% 46.14 Teledensity (up to Dec., 2014) Internet Broadband on 13.81 million 175.00 million 254.40 million including Demand by 2012 Broadband Broadband including Broadband Broadband 75.73 million up to Sept., 2014)
Financial Parameters (Rupees in Crore) Name of Plan Targets Achievements Gross Budgetary Internal Gross Budgetary Internal External Support (GBS) External Support (GBS) Budgetary Resources Budgetary of PSU’s & C-DoT Resources (IEBR) of PSU’s & C-DoT (IEBR) Eleventh 3753.74 75556.46 3537.17 51345.26 Five Year Plan Twelfth 20825.00 51285.00 5016.09 7284.21 Five Year Plan (up to 31.03.2014)
(d) Government approved National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project on 25.10.2011 at an estimated cost of about Rs. 20,100 Crore for effective provision of at least 100 Mbps bandwidth in all the estimated 2,50,000 Gram Panchayat (GPs) to be used by all categories of service providers on non-discriminatory basis. These access providers/service providers like mobile operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), cable TV operators, content providers can launch various services in rural areas. Various applications for e-health, e-education, e-governance etc. will be provided.
A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) viz. Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) has been incorporated under Companies Act on 25.02.2012 with an objective to create, operate, maintain and manage National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) infrastructure. Work is being implemented by BBNL through 3 CPSUs viz. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Railtel and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).
Following steps are being taken for implementation of the NOFN project in a time bound manner:
(i) Execution of project in a phased manner to learn and improve from experiences of project implementation.
(ii) Multi-pronged strategy for execution of work being adopted for accelerated implementation of the project.
(iii) Regular monitoring and review of the project at various levels.
(e) (a) The future action plan of the Department for expansion and improvement of telephone, internet by the Department of Telecom is as follows:
Schemes are being implemented with financial support from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) for expansion of telecom and internet services in rural & remote areas of the country are as below:
(i) National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) :
Government is implementing National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project to provide broadband connectivity through Optical Fibre Cable (OFC) to all the Gram Panchayats in the country (approximately 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats) at an estimated cost of Rs. 20,100 Crore by bridging the connectivity gap between Gram Panchayats and Blocks. Under this project, at least 100 Mbps (megabits per second) bandwidth would be made available at each Gram Panchayat (GP) to be used by all the service providers on non-discriminatory basis. Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL), a Central Public Sector Undertaking Unit (CPSU) has been created to execute the project. Work is being implemented by BBNL through 3 CPSUs viz. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), Railtel and Power Grid Corporation of India Limited (PGCIL).
The scheme to connect all the Gram Panchayats with respective blocks through OFC is envisaged to be completed in a phased manner by December 2016.
A Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) viz. BBNL has been incorporated under Indian Companies Act, 1956 on 25.02.2012.
The project is likely to be completed in phased manner by December, 2016.
(ii) Mobile connectivity in LWE Affected region:
Government has approved on 20.08.2014 a project to provide Mobile Services in 2199 locations in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas. The estimated project implementation cost of the USOF supported Scheme of Mobile Services in Left Wing Extremism affected areas is Rs.3567.58 crores which is to be funded from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
(iii) Comprehensive Telecom Plan for North-East:
Government has approved a proposal on 10.09.2014 to implement a Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North-Eastern Region at the estimated cost of Rs.5336.18 crore. The Project envisages provision of mobile coverage to 8621 identified uncovered villages, installation of 321 mobile tower sites along National Highways and strengthening of transmission network in the States of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura.
(iv) Mobile Connectivity in Uncovered Villlages:
Mobile coverage to balance uncovered villages, which presently do not have mobile connectivity, is to be provided in a phased manner over five years. Preparation of Detailed Project Report (DPR) for Himalayan States (Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand) and Western Border States (Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana and Punjab) is targeted in the current financial year.
(v) Comprehensive Telecom Development Programme for Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands:
Telecom Commission has given ‘in principle’ approval on 07.11.2014 for Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan including provision of mobile connectivity for Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep Islands with the total estimated investment of Rs. 221.05 crore.
(b)“Department of Posts is implementing a Plan Scheme namely “Rural Business & Access to Postal Network” for expansion & rationalization of postal network and also make provisions for basic infrastructure equipments for Extra Departmental Branch Post Offices (EDBOs). It has been decided to open 400 new Branch Post Offices (BOs) and 412 Sub-Post Offices (SOs) by redeployment & relocation during 12th Plan under this Plan Scheme, to increase access of postal services in uncovered rural and urban areas, out of which 172 BOs and 150 SOs have already been opened during 2012-13 & 2013-14. The targets for opening of new BOs & SOs during current financial year 2014-15 are 80 & 80 respectively.
Considering the gap between the demand for postal services and the availability of resources for increasing access to postal facilities, Department of Posts has introduced Franchise Scheme. The objective of this scheme is to provide basic postal facilities through franchise outlets in urban and rural areas, where there is need & justification for a post office but it is not possible to open it for some reasons. It has been decided to open 1050 new Franchise Outlets (FOs) during 12th Plan under this Plan Scheme, to increase access of postal services in uncovered rural and urban areas, out of which 455 FOs have already been opened during 2012-13 & 2013-14. The targets for opening of new FOs during current financial year 2014-15 are 200.
Postal Circle-wise number of BOs, SOs & FOs opened during 2012-13, 2013-14 & targets for opening of BOs, SOs & FOs during 2014-15 are given at Annexure.”
