Thiruvananthapuram: The first phase of the K-FON project will be completed in June and Rs 120 crore will be kept aside for it, Kerala Finance Minister KN Balagopal said in his budget presentation on Friday.
Balagopal said 2,000 WiFi hotspots will come up in Kerala with the assistance of the KFON project.
The KFON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) is part of Kerala government's ambitious plan to provide Internet connection to BPL families, government offices, hospitals and schools.
About 12 lakh Below Poverty Line (BPL) families are expected to be provided free Internet connection under the project. The Wi-Fi hotspots across the state will help connect users in schools, hospitals, offices and houses.
The government has also allotted Rs 1,771 crore for its flagship Life Mission project. Life Mission is a housing campaign to build houses for families without land or housing in Kerala.
Rs 1,000 crore for IT parks
The IT sector is to get Rs 559 crore, the minister said.
A new IT park will be constructed in Kannur and Kollam. A sum of Rs 1,000 crore has been allotted for the development of IT parks in the state. The FM also kept aside Rs 26.6 crore for the development of Technopark alone.
Four IT corridors will developed parallel to NH 66 and 20 new micro IT parks will be established.
Other Key Points
- Rs 26 core has been allotted for the digital university, Rs 20 crore was for private commercial parks in the state and Rs 28 crore for an electronic hardware hub.
- The Finance Minister has earmarked Rs 126.66 crore for the industries sector and Rs 350 crore for skill parks in all the 14 districts.
- Rs 7 crore was demarcated for developing basic infrastructure in public schools.
- The government is also committed to creating 1 lakh new jobs, the finance minister said.
- 50 crores for Work-Near-Home for qualified professionals including housewives
- Industrial facilitation parks to be established.
- Rs1.31 lakh crore for road developemnt under NHAI. State will meet 25-50% of the cost incurred in the land acquisition of the project.
- Rs 1500 crore for development of Thiruvananthapuram C-Angamaly, Kollam Chengotta road. Rs 1,207 for roads and bridges
- Rs 1,106 crore for KSRTC
- Rs 2,000 crore for lang acquisition under K-Rail
- Rs 500 crore for loan via KFC for MSMEs
- 100 crores for Medical tech Innovation Park
- Rs 500 crore for Kerala genomic Data Centre
