Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL) has floated a global tender — inviting bids for the Rs 19,041 crore BharatNet project — to roll out high-speed broadband services in the rural areas across 16 states.
BBNL has invited global tender for the development (creation, upgradation, operation and maintenance and utilization) of BharatNet through a public-private partnership model in 9 separate packages across 16 states for a concession period of 30 years, BBNL said in a statement.

The project will cover an estimated 3.61 lakh villages (including Gram Panchayats) across Kerala, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh.

The existing BharatNet was connecting all the Gram Panchayats (GPs) of the country by laying of OFC (primarily) between Block and GPs. The scope of BharatNet has now been enhanced to connect all the Inhabited Villages of the country, approx. 6.43 lakhs (inclusive of GPs).

The existing BharatNet network across these 16 States will become part of this project. Last Date of submission of tender bid is 24/08/2021

The project will be executed through a Design, Build, Finance, Operate and Transfer (DBFOT) concession on PPP framework.