In 1,000 days, all villages to have optical fibre network: Modi from Red Fort

Announcing that a new cybersecurity policy will be unveiled soon, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that all villages in India will be connected with optical fibre in the next 1,000 days. Modi also said that Lakshadweep will soon be connected to submarine optical fibre.

New Delhi:Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced that all the Indian villages will be connected by optical fibre as a part of new cybersecurity policy which will be unveiled soon. The policy will be launched with an aim to avert the threats emanating from cyberspace.

"India's six lakh villages with optical fibre network will be completed in the next 1,000 days," he said.

"Lakshadweep will also be connected to submarine optical fibre cable via high-speed internet connectivity," Modi stated, adding that work on new projects in these islands is underway.

"In the last five years, 1.5 lakh village panchayats have been connected with optical fibre cable and in the next 1,000 days, all villages in the country will be connected with optical fibre," Modi said.

"We have around 1,300 islands. Keeping in mind their geographical location and their significance in the development of the nation, we have chosen some islands for rapid development. Recently, we connected Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an undersea cable for a better internet. Next, we will connect Lakshadweep," he said while delivering his seventh consecutive Independence Day speech from the iconic Red Fort.

Modi pointed out that only five dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fibre cable before 2014.

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"The country is witnessing an expansion of roads and internet at unprecedented and rapid speed, from the peaks of the Himalayas to islands in the Indian Ocean," he stated.

Modi recently inaugurated the first-ever undersea optical fibre cable project for Andaman and Nicobar Islands which will provide high-speed broadband connections in the union territory at par with services in the mainland.

"In the last month only, transactions worth about Rs 3 lakh crore took place through BHIM UPI alone," he said, adding that during the lockdown period, digital transactions witnessed a huge surge.

The prime minister had laid the foundation for 2,312-kilometre Chennai - Andaman and Nicobar Islands (CANI) connecting submarine optical fibre cable project on December 30, 2018. Referring to Digital India, he said the importance of the mission has been realised during the COVID-19 pandemic.

With agency inputs