Government Cancels Rs 19,000 Crore Rural Broadband Connectivity Bid For Lack Of Bidders
NDTV
Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited cancelled a Rs 19,000-crore bid for connecting villages with broadband network, due to lack of bidders' participation
State-owned Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) has cancelled a Rs 19,000-crore tender that was floated for connecting villages across 16 states with an optical fibre-based high-speed broadband network, following the lack of participation of eligible bidders.
The project was approved in June last year to roll out an optical fibre network under BharatNet in 16 states in a public-private partnership model with a total expense of Rs 29,430 crore.
Government had approved a viability gap fund of Rs 19,041 crore for the project that aimed to connect 3.61 lakh villages across 16 states.
The project was divided into nine packages, and tenders for each of the packages were floated separately.
