Governor’s Advisors K Skandan and K K Sharma along with ChiefSecretary BVR Subrahmanyam today chaired a meeting here to review theimplementation of Union Government’s National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN)scheme which entails extending hi-speed internet facility to Gram Panchayats inthe State.
The meeting was attended by Commissioner Secretary Power DevelopmentDepartment, Hirdesh Kumar, Secretary Rural Development Department andPanchayati Raj, Sheetal Nanda, MD, JKIT Infrastructure Corporation and MDSIDCO, Ravinder Kumar, Special Secretary Finance Department, Nazim Zai Khan,Special Secretary Industries and Commerce, Chief Engineer PDD, Qazi Hashmat,Project Manager, JaKeGA, IT Department, Irfan Rather and other concerned, anofficial handout said.
During the meeting, the Advisors and Chief Secretary deliberated upon theprogress made on NOFN scheme, so far.
The Chief Secretary informed that the number of GPs to be covered inPhase-I through Optical Fibre Cabling (OFC) is 386 of which 281 are coveredtill date, while in Phase-II around 1685Gram Panchayats would be connected through VSAT.
It given outthat the total number of GPs ready under Phase-II through VSAT is 289 while thenumber of GPs to be covered under Phase-II through OFC is 2415.
Addressing themeeting, Advisor Sharma mentioned that bandwidth requirements in the interimcan be hired from the infrastructure of existing public and private telecomoperators. The Advisor directed IT Department to examine the operation cost andagency for undertaking the Operation and Maintenance, while also estimating thecapital costs of the project and also the hiring charges from the telecomoperators for 3700 pending Point of Presence (POP).
The meetingafter due deliberations asked the PDD department to consider exploring thefeasibility of laying of OFC through their existing Infrastructure.
To enhanceconnectivity to all the GPs on a sustainable basis, JaKeGA, IT Department shallbe considering options for hiring the OFC Services or owning the OFC Servicesthat can be shared with all concerned departments.
On theoccasion, Advisor Skandan said that the Internet facility for Gram Panchayatswould have a positive impact on the State’s economic growth, besides it wouldprovide faster, transparent and cost-effective governance to the people.
Need for thecoordination among all the stakeholders to work out an appropriate mechanismfor the timely execution of the digital backbone including the possibleutilization of PDD infrastructure for the purpose was highlighted during themeeting.