In the coming 1000 days, every village in the country will be connected with optical fibre cable, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address on the occasion of the 74th Independence Day.
Modi mentioned that before 2014, only 5 dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fiber cable.
In the last five years, nearly 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country have been connected with optical fiber cable.
He further added that participation of rural India and villages in Digital India is very important for balanced development of India.
To enable this we will rapidly expand our optical fibre network. This will reach all the 6 lakh villages within 1,000 days.
Expressing his gratitude to the PM for the announcement, Union Minister for Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad tweeted, “Today you have entrusted Department of Telecommunications with the responsibility to connect all the villages of India by optical fibre Internet in 1000 days.
“It’s a game changer for Digital India. With your inspiration we will do it,” said Prasad.
During the 74th Independence Day speech PM also announced that in the next 1000 days, Lakshadweep will be connected with submarine optical fiber cable.
“We have around 1,300 islands. Keeping in mind their geographical location and their significance in the development of the nation, work to begin new projects in some of these islands is underway,” said PM Modi.
“We have chosen some islands for rapid development. Recently, we connected Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an undersea cable for a better internet. Next, we will connect Lakshadweep,” he said while delivering his I-Day speech from Red Fort.
Earlier this week, Modi inaugurated the first-ever undersea optic fiber link between Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar to ensure high-speed broadband connectivity for the Union Territory (UT) at par with services in the cities like Delhi and Chennai.