Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee asked Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal to seek cleaÂrance from Planning Commission for allocating funds to National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project under nonPlan category.
Telecom minister requested finance ministry to allocate funds for NOFN from nonPlan side to mitigate chances of delays in funding for the scheme which involves approval at various levels.The project requires Rs 20,100 crore over a period of three years.Mukherjee said the project will require the same kind of administrative and financial approvals whether funds is allocated under Plan or nonPlan category.Keeping this expenditure under Plan will not, therefore, cause procedural delays, Mukherjee said in a letter to Sibal.
The cabinet in October had approved NOFN scheme and creation of SPV to execute it. Initially, the broadband proÂject will be executed by state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and other institutions like RailTel. Later, PowerGrid and GAIL would also be made partners.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.