BSNL bags bulk of Rs 2,395 cr DoT project

State-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has bagged a major chunk of the Department of Telecommunications' (DoT) of Rs 2,395 crore rural telephony project.

BSNL has won the contract to build around 6,000 towers, with Reliance Communications, Hutchison-Essar and GTL getting the mandate to build around 400 towers each.

According to industry sources, BSNL has received the majority of the contract by quoting the lowest price. The DoT had called the tender for setting up a total of 8,100 towers under the infrastructure, or 'Part A', of the contract.

The 8,100 towers were divided into 81 clusters and 80 clusters were awarded today, while one cluster ended in a tie-up between GTL and Reliance. The one cluster, which comprises around 400 towers, will go under the hammer on April 2. Apart from Reliance Communications, Hutchison-Essar and GTL, infrastructure companies such as Nitel and Quipo have also bagged some clusters. Quipo is believed to have bagged 100 towers, while all other companies have received over 400 towers each.