The network, Shanker said, will transform several aspects of a citizen's life by allowing high-speed video, data, internet and telephone services, which will be deployed for a host of areas such as e-education, business, entertainment, environment, health and e-governance services.

Bharat Broadband being a new company, the survey work has been entrusted with three state-run firms - Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), RailTel Corp and Power Grid Corp, all of which are already in the optic fibre business for their own networks.

"We allocated various states to these companies. The work at around 180,000 panchayats is being done by BSNL, and for 35,000 each is being done by Power Grid and RailTel."

Shanker said since the mandate was to complete the project by the middle of 2014, the simultaneous process has already started for its actual execution.

"We have also started floating tenders under four broad categories - optical fibre cable and accessories, ducts, electronic equipment, and trenching and laying. For cables, we have received applications from 12-13 manufacturers. We wish to finalize this aspect this month itself," he said.

Also Read: Why Google Wrote a $100 Million Cheque to this Indian

Also Read: This Indian Engineer Just Ditched Cisco For Its Biggest Rival