By Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network - Panaji

Panaji, Mar 24: The much touted Goa Broadband project that had hit the roadblock after being inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will be completed in July, 2009.

The state government, in the reply tabled on the floor of the house, said that the phase one of the project would be completed by June 24, 2009 while second phase will be completed by July 24, 2009.

The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on December 27, 2007 in Panaji.

Bangalore-based United Telecoms Limited (UTL) had bagged the contract to give broadband connections all across Goa using optic fibre cables and wireless technologies.

The state government later had issued show cause notice to the UTL on April 9, 2008 for not being able to complete the work in time. “The show cause notice was revoked on February 25, 2009 by revisiting techno-commercial proposal submitted by M/s UTL as a way of dispute resolution which was deliberated and discussed with the government and various stakeholders like finance department, NIC and NSIG,” the reply tabled during the current assembly session mentions.

“The proposal have been approved by the government and M/s UTL has since resumed the implementation of Goa Broadband Network,” the reply reads.

The GBBN aims to provide ultra-high speed broadband connectivity to all government offices as well as all citizens of Goa. The company aims to connect all eleven talukas and give connectivity to government offices in Panaji, and Margao.

The broadband speed will be provided from state head quarter to district head quarter - at 10 Gbps and all talukas with 10 Gbps, while the government offices will be at 1Gbps and household connectivity will be 2 to 10 Mbps.