NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL will place the telecom equipment purchase order for 14.37 million lines by end of this month, a top company official said today.
"We are about to finish technical evaluation. Once we are done, we will go for financial bids. The purchase order will be issued by end of this month," BSNL CMD R K Upadhyay told PTI.
BSNL had invited bids for 14.37 million lines in July 2011 under phase 7 of its mobile network expansion in north, east and south zones.
Only bidders having a minimum turnover of Rs 8,000 crores in the last two years were allowed to participate in the bid.
"All the major vendors and known vendors have expressed their interest. We will come to know about financial estimates only after financial bids are closed," Upadhyay said.
According to a statement given by Telecom Minister Milind Deora in Parliament, leading players namely Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent and Nokia Siemens Network are in the race for this tender.
The 14.37 million lines tender floated by BSNL includes planning, financing, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and annual maintenance.
Bidder under this tender will be selected through e-tender process.
The last tender was finalised by the company under Phase 5 of its expansion in 2006 for 45 million lines which was later reduced to 14 million lines in 2007.
After this, the company floated two more tenders for 93 million in 2008 and 5.5 million lines in 2010 but both the tenders were later cancelled.
The 93 million line tender, estimated to be worth Rs 35,000 crore, was cancelled amid controversies over the lack of competition in the bidding process and complaints from various quarters that the capacity addition was too high for the company.
"We are about to finish technical evaluation. Once we are done, we will go for financial bids. The purchase order will be issued by end of this month," BSNL CMD R K Upadhyay told PTI.
BSNL had invited bids for 14.37 million lines in July 2011 under phase 7 of its mobile network expansion in north, east and south zones.
Only bidders having a minimum turnover of Rs 8,000 crores in the last two years were allowed to participate in the bid.
"All the major vendors and known vendors have expressed their interest. We will come to know about financial estimates only after financial bids are closed," Upadhyay said.
According to a statement given by Telecom Minister Milind Deora in Parliament, leading players namely Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent and Nokia Siemens Network are in the race for this tender.
The 14.37 million lines tender floated by BSNL includes planning, financing, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and annual maintenance.
Bidder under this tender will be selected through e-tender process.
The last tender was finalised by the company under Phase 5 of its expansion in 2006 for 45 million lines which was later reduced to 14 million lines in 2007.
After this, the company floated two more tenders for 93 million in 2008 and 5.5 million lines in 2010 but both the tenders were later cancelled.
The 93 million line tender, estimated to be worth Rs 35,000 crore, was cancelled amid controversies over the lack of competition in the bidding process and complaints from various quarters that the capacity addition was too high for the company.
