Revival: Govt approves Rs. 89,047 crores plan for BSNL
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved an Rs. 89,047 crore revival plan for the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), including an allotment of 4G/5G spectrum for the ailing telecommunication company through equity infusion.
The Centre had approved the first phase of the revival package worth Rs. 69,000 crores for BSNL in 2019 and the second to the tune of Rs. 1,64,000 crores in 2022.
With this, BSNL’s authorized capital will increase from Rs 1,50,000 crore (Rs. 1 trillion) to Rs. 2.1 trillion, the media reported.
“With this revival package, BSNL will emerge as a stable telecom service provider focused on providing connectivity to the remotest parts of India,” an official press release said.
Because of the two packages, BSNL has started earning operating profits since 2021-22, and its total debt reduced from Rs. 32,944 crores to Rs. 22,289 crores.
It also issued fresh orders worth nearly Rs. 19,000 crores. In May, it issued advanced purchase orders worth Rs. 15,000 crores to a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-led consortium and another contract to ITI Ltd, worth Rs. 3,889 crores, for supplying 4G telecom gears.
TCS and a consortium, including state-run telecom technology development organization C-DoT, will deploy around 1,00,000 4G sites for BSNL. ITI Ltd said it will deploy 23,633 sites for 4G services.
A Group of Ministers approved the proposal on May 8, which envisaged that 20 percent of the total project has to be deployed by the state-run ITI Ltd.
The supply period for the 4G telecom gear is 18 to 24 months under the contract for network deployment in the West Zone of BSNL operations.
