Digital Bharat Nidhi Signs Rs 10,520 Crore BharatNet Agreement for 28,237 Maharashtra Gram Panchayats

3 October 2026· MaharashtraNational

Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) signed an agreement on 3 October with the Government of Maharashtra, MahaNet Digital Infrastructure Ltd (MDIL), BSNL and MahaIT to extend rural broadband under the Amended BharatNet Programme, backed by Rs 10,520 crore of central support. It covers 28,237 gram panchayats - 15,171 Phase-I networks upgraded from linear to ring topology, 12,740 Phase-II panchayats and 326 newly created ones - plus demand-based connectivity in 15,799 villages and over nine lakh rural fibre-to-the-home connections. Maharashtra follows Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, which signed similar state agreements earlier in 2026 under the programme the Cabinet amended in August 2023.

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BharatNet began in 2011 as the National Optical Fibre Network and was renamed in 2015; it aims to link every gram panchayat with optical fibre | Digital Bharat Nidhi replaced the Universal Service Obligation Fund under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 | BharatNet is implemented by the Department of Telecommunications under the Ministry of Communications

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