The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has invited Expressions of Interest from telecom and Internet service providers for providing broadband connectivity to 1.5 lakh Common Services Centres (CSCs) set up by the government in villages across the country.

Expressions of Interest (EoI) are invited from telecom/Internet service providers (TSPs) for provisioning of broadband connectivity of at least 256 kbps, the DIT said in a notice.

About 84,000 CSCs have already been set up, which each serve a cluster of 6-7 villages. Initially envisaged to cover one lakh villages, the project was later expanded to cover 2.5 lakh villages across India.

Set up under the public-private partnership model, the CSCs were set up to provide video, voice and data services in areas of e-governance, education, health, telemedicine and entertainment.

The government has envisioned setting up one lakh CSCs under the National e-Governance Plan, which will offer web- enabled services in rural areas, including application forms and certificates and online payment of electricity, telephone and water bills.

"It is planned to set up an additional 1.5 lakh CSCs with an objective of having one CSC for each gram panchayat in the country. To ensure seamless provision of services through these CSCs, broadband connectivity of at least 256 kbps is to be provisioned in all CSCs," DIT said.

TSPs interested in providing broadband connectivity to the additional 1.5 lakh CSCs need to submit an EoI on or before November 10, 2010.