Telangana seeks Rs 1,779 crore interest-free loan for T-Fiber project

Hyderabad/New Delhi, Aug 23 (IANS) Telangana Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Friday urged the Centre to provide a Rs 1,778 crore interest-free loan for the T-Fiber project aimed at providing internet connectivity to households for Rs 300 per month.  

The Chief Minister met Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia in New Delhi and informed that the state government targets to provide fibre connections to 63 lakh households in rural areas and 30 lakh households in urban areas at a cost of Rs 300 per month.

The state government has already mobilised Rs 530 crore through various financial institutions for the T-Fiber project which is being taken up at the cost of Rs 1,779 crore, the CM said requesting the Union Minister to sanction Rs 1,779 crore interest-free long-term loan through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USFO) to the state government.

The Chief Minister, who was accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, told Scindia that the state government is committed to providing connectivity to all gram panchayats, mandals, and districts through optical fibre under the T-Fiber project.

He apprised the Union Minister of the state government’s plan to provide internet services, cable TV and e-education services to 93 lakh households, apart from extending G2G (Government to Government) and G2C (Government to Citizen) connectivity to 65,500 government institutions.

According to the Chief Minister’s office, the CM also informed Scindia that the state government already provided a Rythu Nestham programme to 300 Rythu Vedikas through T- Fiber and an internet facility is made available to social welfare schools.

He urged the Union Minister to provide the first phase of the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) infrastructure to the state government in time, telling him that while the first phase of NOFN is running on the basis of linear architecture in some districts, T-Fiber is functioning on ring architecture in the remaining areas.

Revanth Reddy said that the state government already sent the DPR to the Union government in October last year requesting to convert the first phase of NOFN to Bharat Net-3 architecture and appealed to Scindia to approve the DPR quickly. The Chief Minister asserted that e-governance services will be provided to the citizens of 33 districts through Bharat Net-3 in the state. He also requested the union Communications minister to apply the Bharat Net Movement scheme, which is aimed at providing high-speed internet facilities to rural areas, for the T-Fiber project.

--IANS

ms/vd