DoT, BSNL working on Transfer Agreement for Land

The Department of Telecom has started laying the groundwork for identifying real estate assets which would be transferred to BSNL to help the PSU form a land bank, in line with the Sam Pitroda panel's suggestions.
    
BSNL, which was carved out of the DoT in 2000 as a separate service unit and was corporatised, has huge land assets at its disposal, which the panel suggested should be converted into a land bank and monetised in future.
    
A DoT official said for developing land bank, the land first needs to be transferred to BSNL first.
    
A DoT internal note said an exercise is already going on for retention of certain assets by DoT for its field units and transferring the rest to BSNL by signing transfer agreements.
    
"It is proposed to complete signing of TA in time-bound manner within six months. But setting up of the subsidiary may be undertaken after restructuring of the BSNL board," said the note.
    
The Telecom Commission is scheduled to meet in the first week of next month.
    
The land bank initiative was a part of the suggestions made by the Sam Pitroda committee and was aimed at creation of subsidiary companies of BSNL as a means of restructuring its business to maximise revenue from existing resources.
    
BSNL has already reorganised its structure based on business verticals of consumer mobility, consumer fixed access, enterprise and new business. The PSU is currently in the process of hiving off its tower business as separate entity.