The Cabinet on Wednesday approved public-private partnership mode for the rollout of BharatNet project for broadband services in villages in 16 states with viability gap funding of Rs 19,041 crore, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.

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He said the total expense will be Rs 29,430 crore to cover around 3,60,000 villages in the 16 states, which includes Rs 19,041 crore to be spent by the government for the viability gap funding. Prasad said the decision to involve private players was taken after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on August 15, 2020 that around 6 lakh villages in the country will be connected with broadband in 1,000 days.

He said till date, 1.56 lakh out of the 2.5 lakh village panchayats have been connected with broadband.