Telangana CM Revanth Reddy requests Rs 1,779 crore interest-free loan for T-Fiber project
Aug 23, 2024
New Delhi [India], August 23 : Telangana Chief Minister Revanth Reddy accompanied by Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, met with Union Minister for Telecom and Communications, Jyotiraditya Scindia, in New Delhi on Friday and discussed the ambitious T-Fiber project, which aims to provide fibre connectivity to 63 lakh rural and 30 lakh urban households in Telangana for a nominal fee of Rs 300 per month.
During the meeting, CM Revanth Reddy highlighted the Telangana government's objective to connect all village panchayats, mandals, and districts through the T-Fiber project, providing high-speed internet, cable TV, and e-education services to households across the state. The project also aims to offer G2G (Government to Government) and G2C (Government to Citizen) connectivity to 65,500 government institutions.
CM Revanth Reddy informed Union Minister Scindia that the state government has already raised Rs 530 crore from various financial institutions towards the T-Fiber project, which has a total proposed investment of Rs 1,779 crore. He requested that the remaining amount be provided as a long-term, interest-free loan from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).
Furthermore, the Chief Minister requested the timely provision of the necessary infrastructure for the first phase of the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN) to the state government.
He explained that while some districts in Telangana are currently operating under a linear architecture for the NOFN Phase 1, the T-Fiber network in other areas is based on a ring architecture. For efficient network management and utilization, the Chief Minister proposed that the NOFN Phase 1 infrastructure be delivered on time.
Additionally, CM Revanth Reddy reminded the Union Minister that the Telangana government had submitted a Detailed Project Report (DPR) last October to convert NOFN Phase 1 to BharatNet-3 architecture. He urged the central government to approve the DPR promptly.
The Chief Minister expressed his belief that BharatNet-3 would enable e-governance services for citizens across all 33 districts in Telangana. He also requested that the BharatNet movement scheme, aimed at providing high-speed internet in rural areas, be extended to T-Fiber.
