"There's no question of pulling out of the project. Work is going on there. We will complete the project by 2001," Mr Pitroda told IANS in an interview on Monday.

The technocrat-turned-entrepreneur, who was in India as head of a United Nations task force on information and communications technology (ICT) appointed by secretary general Kofi Annan, said the Tamil Nadu project will entail an investment of $100 million.

"My team will be meeting with officials of Reliance over the next two weeks to firm up the management and investment issues - details like the appointment of chief executive officer, the equity holding, and how the money will be pumped in," Mr Pitroda said.

"We will be firming up these details by the end of January," he said, adding that the investments for the project will be routed through Mauritius.WorldTel is a limited liability private company created by the Geneva-based International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to foster the growth of telecom infrastructure in developing nations.

The company has launched similar Internet infrastructure projects in several Latin American countries. Besides, it also has a $1-billion order in Mexico to establish a telecom network based on wireless in local loop (WILL) technology and similar projects in Azerbaijan, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe.

Mr Pitroda, who co-founded a communications technology firm based in Chicago, MTI International, said WorldTel has memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with five other states, besides Tamil Nadu, for establishing broadband networks. The five states are Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal, said Mr Pitroda, who has also set up a semiconductor applications firm there, Wescon Switching, that he sold in early 1980s.

"We will be converting the MoUs into JVs (joint ventures) once we gain experience in Tamil Nadu. I would envisage that the projects will entail investments of $100 million in each state," he said.

A former chairman of the Indian government's Telecom Commission, Mr Pitroda said apart from wiring Tamil Nadu with the broadband network, the $100-million project will also establish 1,500 Internet community access (ICC) centers in the state.

Each of these ICC centers will have several computers for people to access the Net and localised content on training, business, utility services and education.

"We want to take the Net beyond the English-speaking people of the state," said Mr Pitroda, who migrated to the United States in 1964 and has more than 50 patents in his name in the area of communications technologies. For that, he emphasised, the content will also be available in vernacular languages.