Lucknow, Jan 10 (IANS): A staggering 548 development blocks in Utttar Pradesh - more than half of the state's 820 blocks - would be connected to 3G services by May, an official said Saturday.

This is a part of the Digital India initiative pitched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Work on laying of optical fibre cables (OFCs) in these blocks is underway and the progress is being directly monitored by the Prime Minister's Office.

After the laying of OFCs is completed, work would be initiated to establish ATMs and banks at the villages, a BSNL official told IANS.

Chief General Manager (UP-East) of BSNL, H.R. Shukla said that under the project 600 gram panchayats (village councils) have already been linked to the high speed internet facility.

Work as of now is underway in gram panchayats of 36 blocks in Varanasi, the parliamentary constituency of the prime minister and Lucknow, Gorakhpur, Hamirpur, Mahoba, Banda, Orai, Barabanki, Basti, Hardoi, Lalitpur, Rae Bareli, Faizabad, Kanpur, Pratapgarh, Sitapur, Unnao, Mau and Mirzapur, the official added.