Gemini bags Rs 57cr order from Punjab govt

Gemini Communication Ltd has bagged a Rs 57.60-crore order from the Punjab government for supplying hardware and providing installation and maintenance services on IT infrastructure for phase III of the state's ICT Education project, the company said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange on Tuesday.

This project will cover about 2,085 government schools in the rural and urban areas across Punjab. It will be carried forward on an LMT (lease maintain and transfer) basis for five years.

The company will be responsible for setting up the entire networking infrastructure in the schools, installation of workstations and servers with all the software and maintain the infrastructure for five years. Computer teachers will be hired by the Punjab government who will use this infrastructure to provide computer education to students.

Sreekrishna, director and COO of Gemini Communication, said that with this project, the company would deploy more resources in North India and strengthen its base to service clients in Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Gemini plans to open a sales office in Chandigarh to provide support for the project and expand its client base in the region.

Gemini has already bagged a Rs 75-crore Tamil Nadu Electricity Board (TNEB) order for computerisation and connectivity of collection centres in the rural and semi-urban areas of Tamil Nadu and integrating them with the TNEB's Network Operations Centre in Chennai. Gemini implemented the first phase of the TNEB project successfully last year, and this year, has been awarded the second phase.

The company currently has orders worth Rs 175 crore on its books, all of which have to be executed in the first two quarters of this financial year. With the Punjab Schools project being on a BOOT basis, Gemini will execute orders worth about Rs 175 crore in the first two quarters while recognising revenues for about Rs 125 crore, the company said.