New Delhi, July 14: The government is considering an optic fibre network along the national highways that stretch for more than 1 lakh kilometres.

"I have recommended that we build a nation-wide optic fibre network along the national highway network. The revenues from the use of this IT infrastructure backbone could be used to repair and maintain our highways," said Nitin Gadkari, minister for transport and shipping. "A similar network of gas and refined oil along the highways could deliver these products in almost all major cities."

India has an ambitious National Optical Fibre Network programme targeting 2 lakh panchayats at a cost of Rs 20,000 crore. However, just 27 per cent of the village bodies have been connected since the programme's launch in 2011.

Gadkari made the proposal of the optic fibre network across the highways at the ABP Infocom meet held here today.

He said Maharashtra had built a similar network when he was a state minister, and it was yielding good profits to the state government.

The minister said he had also suggested an oil and gas pipeline along the national highway, which could service all fuel outlets and "save thousands of crores in road and rail transportation of automobile fuels".

India already has a 10,977km gas grid. However, the government plans to build a longer and more elaborate gas-and-refined-petroleum-product network, which fits with Gadkari's proposal.

However, such ambitious programmes would require significant investment in infrastructure. Gadkari said money was not a problem for such plans and stated that out-of-the-box thinking was the only way forward to push India's growth story.

The minister also spoke of the need to involve the telecom sector in the government's "Make in India" programme.

"We have calculated that India will require telecom and IT hardware worth some Rs 20 lakh crore by 2025 ... we need to draw up a programme to encourage local manufacturing and to turn India into an export hub for electronic hardware in a manner similar to that of automobiles," Gadkari said.

A strategy similar to the "Make in India" plan was adopted earlier for cars. A policy mix of sops for local manufacture along with high taxes on imports had forced many global car giants to set up shop in the country.

Creating a similar regime for electronic hardware has been difficult as manufacturers have resisted moving from their bases in Korea, Taiwan and China.