Telangana: Goof-up derails Fibre Grid plans

Hyderabad: The Fibre Grid project, aimed at providing Internet connection to every household in TS, has gone off-track, though not of its own violation. The cable for the project was supposed to be laid along with Water Grid pipeline, but thanks to lack of coordination between the IT and Rural Water Supply departments, this was not done. The Water Grid pipeline to an extent of 3,500 km was laid without laying the fibre grid cable.

The IT department is now struggling on how to overcome this setback due to lack of coordination between the two departments and put fibre grid project back on track along this 3,500 km stretch. The discrepancy came to light when IT minister K.T. Rama Rao reviewed the progress of the Fibre Grid project with RWS department officials for taking up the laying of Water Grid pipeline works.

The Fibre Grid project was planned simultaneously with the Water Grid to reduce the project cost by 80 per cent as there would be no need for the IT department to dig trenches again to lay Fibre Grid cables. The plan was simple: Fibre Grid ducts would be laid along with the Water Grid pipelines in the same trenches over an extent of 1.25 lakh km.

During the review meeting, Mr Rao was shocked to learn from officials that the Water Grid pipelines over an extent of 3,500 km were already laid without the Fibre Grid ducts because there was no communication from the IT department in this regard.

Inspired by the “Digital India” initiative, the TS government launched the “Digital Telangana” scheme, to make TS the first state in the country to have 100 per cent Internet connectivity by utilising the Water Grid project.