Nearly six years after Punjab became the first state in the country to make all its Phase-II BharatNet Gram Panchayats service-ready in 2020, the pace of the Centre’s revamped rural broadband programme has slowed considerably.
Under the Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP), approved in August 2023, only 3,069 of the state’s 13,337 gram panchayats—around 23%—have been upgraded so far, even as 5G services have been rolled out across the state with 18,727 base transceiver stations (BTSs) operational.
The Centre attributed delays in BharatNet implementation to Right of Way (RoW) issues involving multiple agencies and frequent damage to optical fibre cables during development works. The details were shared by the Union ministry of communications in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday in response to a question raised by Rajya Sabha member Vikramjit Singh Sahney.
To address these bottlenecks, the Centre has notified the Telecommunications (Right of Way) Rules, 2024, operationalised a centralised RoW portal, and adopted a ring-topology network along with a dedicated network operations centre to improve broadband reliability in rural and border areas, including Punjab.
BharatNet is the Centre’s flagship rural broadband programme that uses optical fibre to provide high-speed internet connectivity to gram panchayats, creating the backbone for digital services such as e-governance, telemedicine, online education, digital banking and mobile broadband in villages.
{{/usCountry}}BharatNet is the Centre’s flagship rural broadband programme that uses optical fibre to provide high-speed internet connectivity to gram panchayats, creating the backbone for digital services such as e-governance, telemedicine, online education, digital banking and mobile broadband in villages.
{{/usCountry}}Punjab was among the earliest states to implement the programme and, in September 2020, became the first in the country to make all its Phase-II Gram Panchayats service-ready. The current Amended BharatNet Programme aims to upgrade the existing fibre network, using a more resilient ring-topology architecture and extend reliable broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats.
According to the ministry, progress under the upgraded programme has been uneven across districts. Ferozepur leads the state with 362 upgraded gram panchayats, followed by Hoshiarpur (359), Amritsar (248), Gurdaspur (224) and Jalandhar (222). At the other end, Faridkot and Malerkotla have not upgraded a single gram panchayat, while Barnala (8), Rupnagar (22), Mansa (23) and Mohali (28) have made only limited progress.
On the mobile connectivity front, Ludhiana has the highest number of operational 5G BTSs (2,995), followed by Jalandhar (1,743), Amritsar (1,658), SAS Nagar (1,516) and Patiala (1,377). The ministry said 5G services have now been rolled out across all states and Union Territories, including Punjab.