(MENAFN- KNN India) New Delhi, Nov 13 (KNN) The central government-led Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is going to award Rs 1,000-crore purchase order to Finnish Nokia for optical transport network (OTN) equipment supply and deployment through a local system integrator, reported TOI.
This move has annoyed the Indian homegrown telecom companies and come across as a disappointing step.
"This is a very unfortunate situation and discourages Atmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India). BSNL has disqualified United Telecoms Limited (UTL) and Tejas Networks on shoddy grounds as well as tweaked the original terms and conditions to suit foreign companies," Rakesh Kumar Bhatnagar, director general, Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (Voice) told ETTelecom.
Recently, the Delhi-based domestic industry group has also written a "strongly-worded letter" to the communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw seeking immediate intervention.
Teamed up with the state-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) for core, Bangalore-based UTL participated in the bidding process, but was declined on the basis of awaited 'trusted source' approval and the absence of bank guarantee (BG).
Interestingly C-DoT is a part of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) - backed consortium, and is currently supplying core equipment to BSNL's ongoing next generation (4G) network deployment following a proof-of-concept (PoC).
UTL participated in the bidding process, offering indigenously-developed and manufactured products, through a subsidiary Priyaraja Electronics which is an MSME (micro, small and medium enterprise), and qualifies for a relaxation in earnest money deposit (EMD) condition as per the Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT).
"It (BSNL) has even not opened a bid by UTL-C-DoT saying it had no trusted product which, however, can only be applied through a service provider, and their (BSNL) intent is apparently in contradiction to the government's vision of promoting India-made telecom gear," Bhatnagar added.
The tender terms include supply of network elements "after the approval as trusted product" from the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS).
Foreign vendors such as Nokia may be a trusted source but apparently not qualified as a trusted product in the current scenario, Bhatnagar, who is also a former telecom department advisor added.
(KNN Bureau)
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