The Chief Minister's Office of Telangana announced on Wednesday, 27 May 2026 that Chief Minister Revanth Reddy held a video conference with Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia to advance the Amended BharatNet Programme, pressing for an early agreement and release of pending funds to deliver uninterrupted high-speed broadband to rural Telangana.

Context

The video conference focused on implementing the T-Fiber project under the Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP) across Telangana's rural areas. Chief Minister Revanth Reddy, joined by Minister D. Sridhar Babu (@OffDSB), raised several key concerns with Scindia, including expediting a formal agreement and releasing pending central funds at the earliest. Scindia responded positively, assuring full central government cooperation in achieving Telangana's connectivity goals.

The CM also called for a clear policy on transferring mandal-to-gram panchayat ring network systems to the Digital Bharat Nidhi (#DigitalBharatNidhi) fund. This transfer mechanism is seen as critical to sustaining and expanding the rural fibre network's operational backbone.

Policy Backdrop

BharatNet, originally conceived as the National Optical Fibre Network and approved by the Cabinet in 2011, aims to connect all gram panchayats across India with broadband. It was subsequently integrated into the broader Digital India programme launched in 2015. The Amended BharatNet Programme represents an updated implementation framework that allows state-level models with greater flexibility.

Under the ABP, Telangana proposes to set up a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) to sign a formal agreement with the central government. This SPV structure would allow the state to develop a wide high-speed network tailored to rural needs — a model that reflects lessons from earlier linear-deployment shortfalls seen across multiple states in BharatNet's initial phases.

Stakeholders and Impact

The immediate priority is restoring digital connectivity to 3,089 villages in the combined districts of Nizamabad, Rangareddy, and Khammam, where existing networks have been damaged. This forms the first phase of the rollout under the Amended BharatNet framework. Rural households, village panchayats, and local businesses in these districts stand to be the direct beneficiaries.

The state's vision, as discussed in the conference, is to extend the T-Fiber (@tfiberofficial) network in a ring architecture — connecting every gram panchayat in a loop so that if one link in the network fails, traffic is automatically rerouted through an alternate path, ensuring uninterrupted service. This reliability-first design directly addresses one of the persistent criticisms of earlier BharatNet deployments, which used linear topologies vulnerable to single-point failures.

Senior officials participating in the video conference included Telangana Chief Secretary K. Ramakrishna Rao, CM Special Secretary B. Ajit Reddy, and IT Department Joint Secretary D. Anudeeep, underscoring the administrative weight the state has placed behind this initiative.

What's Next

The immediate milestones to watch are the formal constitution of Telangana's SPV and the signing of the agreement with the central government under the ABP framework. Once the agreement is in place, pending central funds are expected to be unlocked, enabling the state to begin network restoration in the 3,089 affected villages across the three districts.

Over the longer term, the ring-architecture rollout is intended to bring rural Telangana's broadband quality on par with better-connected urban and semi-urban areas in the state. The Centre's assurance of 'full cooperation' — while not yet backed by a signed agreement — signals political alignment between Hyderabad and New Delhi on closing the rural digital divide, a goal that will ultimately be tested by execution speed and fund disbursement timelines.