The delay in the BharatNet project, aimed at connecting gram panchayats through broadband, has resulted in a cost escalation from Rs 20,100 crore to Rs 61,109 crore. This is partly due to the ineffectiveness of Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL), the entity set up to implement the project to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats with optic fibre, for high-speed broadband connectivity.

With BBNL not delivering the desired results, the government now plans to merge BBNL with BSNL. The merger is expected to yield better synergies and coordination.

The government will come out with a revised public-private partnership model for BharatNet. No company participated in the tender floated in July last year to provide optical fibre connectivity to cover 3.61 lakh villages in 16 states at a total cost of Rs 29,430 crore. The government had provided Rs 19,041 crore as viability gap funding. But prospective bidders found the terms and conditions too onerous and the revenue-sharing model unviable.

BBNL was incorporated in February 2012 as a special purpose vehicle to implement the national optical fibre network (later renamed BharatNet). But it has failed to meet targets, ostensibly due to poor coordination between multiple agencies.

The Union Cabinet had approved the project on October 25, 2011, and it was to be completed in three years. But even after 11 years, only 1.72 lakh gram panchayats have been made service-ready.

In 2011, when the country did not have even 4G connectivity, plans to provide a 100 mega bit per second (Mbps) speed to rural areas were truly ambitious. But while the country moved from 3G to 4G and soon 5G, many rural areas are still waiting for high-speed broadband. The government has set a revised target to connect all six lakh villages in the country by 2025.

According to an official in the Department of Telecommunications, BharatNet was delayed due to several reasons, including the unprecedented scale, scope and geographical spread of the project, poor coordination between multiple agencies, difficulties in obtaining right-of-way permissions, and delay in procurement of equipment.

The end-to-end network starting from the core network to the gram panchayat and village level is managed in parts by different players. Due to the involvement of multiple agencies, restoration of faults often gets delayed, resulting in poor uptime. Further, officials said, BBNL has limited experience and manpower to ensure operations and maintenance of telecom networks or in marketing and commercial utilisation.

BBNL has just 15-odd permanent employees on its rolls, while the remaining staff is on deputation; in all, it has around 250 people. To a large extent, it depends on BSNL to provide connectivity and bandwidth at block or village level. On many occasions BSNL has failed to deliver on commitments to BharatNet, officials said.

A few years ago, BBNL started to cut down on giving BharatNet work to BSNL because the telecom firm was not utilising the funds and using some of them to pay salaries. Operations and maintenance of fibre for around 1.2 lakh gram panchayats was also taken away from BSNL and given to CSC SPV.

BBNL was created as a project management entity and has no apparatus for marketing, which makes in unviable as a standalone entity, experts have said. The government now thinks BSNL has the capacity to take up all the responsibilities currently being managed by BBNL, including operations and maintenance of the already laid network and its utilisation.

When the tender for the public-private partnership was floated, around 50 companies, including telecom operators, internet service providers, over-the-top players and original equipment manufacturers, engaged with the government during two rounds of bid interactions. The government issued clarifications for around 3,000 queries from the prospective bidders, but no bid was received.