Four-member team to manage Tata Tele affairs

A four member managing committee has been formed to drive the fortunes of Tata Teleservices (TTSL), the wholly owned subsidiary and telecom mobile service operator of the Tata group, ever since S Ramakrishna, managing director of TTSL, was shifted to Tata Power as a whole-time director.

The managing committee comprises of Ajay Pandey, president, TTSL, Amit Bose, president (telecom), Vivek Sett, chief financial officer and Aditya Jain, head of human resources.

The committee reports directly to TTSL chairman F A Vandrevala and has been instrumental for the Rs 2,400 crore Project Sunshine, which is in the midst of rolling out mobile services in the 12 new circles.

Ajay Pandey, president, TTSL, said, "the immediate task of the management committee is to roll out mobile services in the 12 new circles with an investment of Rs 2,400 crore."

So far in its eight existing circles, TTSL has invested close to Rs 1,600 crore. The roll out which is expected to be over by March 2005 will result in the TTSL covering 95 per cent of the telecom revenues across the country.

Except for Jammu & Kashmir, Andamans and North eastern states, TTSL will have a presence in 20 out of 23 circles.

"For symbolic reasons, TTSL has begun rolling out services from Jamshedpur, the birth of the house of the Tatas," Pandey said. This will be followed by services launched in Orissa, Haryana, Chandigarh and Punjab.

Following the implementation of the Project Sunshine, the company expects to breakeven by 2006-07, Pandey pointed out. TTSL has already segregated its operations geographically by creating eight hubs, each headed by a chief operating officer.

The company has hived off its inbound call centre to Serwizsol, a wholly owned subsidiary of Tata Sons.

The inbound traffic will be catered by the two call centres based in Hyderabad and Pune. With the group spreading its wings in the telecom sector, Serwizsol will have a new centre in Chandigarh.

Besides, TTSL has also decided to leverage on the group's software arm Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and will draw upon the latter's domain expertise.