By Pravin Prashant
New Delhi: In a major initiative towards empowering those at the bottom of the pyramid and bridging the digital divide, the Government of Gujarat is looking at providing broadband facilities across all its villages within two month.

According to the state Chief Minister Narendra Modi, 13,716 of its 18,065 villages will be linked using broadband connectivity in next 65 days, making Gujarat the first state to extend such facility till the village level.

Modi also informed that the state government was optimistic about providing connectivity till the village level as Gujarat has already completed its rural electrification programme—Jyoti Gram Yojana.

Gujarat is the first state in India to achieve 100 per cent electrification of villages.

Once connected, the panchayat offices and eGRAMs are expected to form a powerful socio-economic network supporting information dissemination and facilitating e-Governance initiatives in the state.

The project would link the village panchayats and Common Service Centres (CSCs) located in the remotest corners of the state and will ensure high quality and cost-effective video, voice and data services in the areas of agriculture, e-Governance, health and education.

The connectivity will also facilitate point to point and point to multi-point video conferencing services, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) services and both intra and Internet services from these village panchayats and CSCs.

According to sources, Bharti Airtel is partnering with the Government of Gujarat to provide broadband infrastructure for the prestigious eGRAM connectivity project.

The company has also designed a comprehensive VSAT-based solution to provide last mile connectivity to these villages.

Modi, who was in Delhi on Saturday to inaugurate a Gujarat Summit organised by industry association Assocham, also said that the state government was planning to set up a Nano-city and Gujarat International Financial Tax City (GIFT) at Gandhinagar.