SRINAGAR: The Centre on Thursday informed the Rajya Sabha that 295 Gram Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir have been upgraded under the Amended BharatNet Programme (ABP), with 930 km of optical fibre cable laid in the Union Territory as of June 30, 2026.
In a written reply to an unstarred question, Minister of State for Communications Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said the Union Government approved the Amended BharatNet Programme on August 4, 2023, to upgrade and create broadband infrastructure across 2.65 lakh Gram Panchayats nationwide using ring topology, including 4,299 Gram Panchayats in Jammu and Kashmir.
The minister said that by the end of June 2026, 930 km of optical fibre cable had been laid and 295 Gram Panchayats upgraded under the programme in the Union Territory.
The House was also informed that under BharatNet Phases I and II, the Government has laid 6.95 lakh km of optical fibre cable and connected 2.15 lakh Gram Panchayats across the country.
On telecom expansion, the Centre said BSNL is deploying indigenous 4G technology under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, with equipment designed to be upgradeable to 5G.
As of June 30, 2026, 97,013 indigenous 4G Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs) had been installed across India, including 2,076 BTSs in Jammu and Kashmir, the minister said.
