A Central project to set up mobile phone towers in nine States to strengthen anti-Maoist operations has suffered a setback. Even after a re-tender, the project has found no bidders other than the two which qualified in the technical bidding earlier.
The project was conceived three years ago as a key element in the fight against Maoists. The deadline was June 2014.
In March, the Telecom Commission asked the Department of Telecommunications and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., which has to execute the project, to re-tender it, citing the high cost and poor participation. But after two months of the exercise, only Vihaan Networks Ltd. and the HFCL are in the fray.
“We have been pushing for this project since 2010. The Cabinet cleared the proposal last year, but since then, the Telecom Commission, the DoT and the Universal Service Obligation Fund, which is funding the project, have been sparring over some issues, causing undue delay ... It is a sheer waste of time. We have been reminding the DoT about the urgency of the project as it is hurting our fight against Maoists, but to no avail,” a senior Union Home Ministry official told The Hindu .
Senior DoT and BSNL officials say another three or four weeks are required to finalise the bids. “Vihaan and the HFCL have submitted their bids. Their techno-commercial bids have been opened,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director R.K. Upadhyay told a news agency.
In May 2013, the Centre sanctioned about Rs.3,046 crore for setting up and maintaining 2,199 towers in Naxal strongholds in Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram conceived the project three years ago, but the Cabinet cleared it only in 2013 after the top Chhattisgarh Congress leadership was wiped out in a deadly Maoist attack in the Bastar region.
