The government will connect all villages in the country with optical fibre cable in the next 1000 days, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address on the occasion of 74th Independence Day. He mentioned that before 2014, only 5 dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fibre cable. In the last five years, nearly 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country have been connected with optical fibre cable. Modi further added that participation of rural India and villages in ‘Digital India’ is very important for balanced development of India. “To enable this, we will rapidly expand our optical fibre network. This will reach all the 6 lakh villages within 1,000 days.”

During the 74th Independence Day speech, PM also announced that in the next 1000 days, Lakshadweep will be connected with submarine optical fibre cable. “We have around 1,300 islands. Keeping in mind their geographical location and their significance in the development of the nation, work to begin new projects in some of these islands is underway. 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.” Earlier this week PM Modi inaugurated the first-ever undersea optic fibre link between Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar to ensure high-speed broadband connectivity for the Union Territory (UT) at par with services in the cities like Delhi and Chennai.