PowerGrid eyes 30% revenue jump rise from telecom biz

The state-run PowerGrid Corporation (PGCIL) aims at a 30 per cent increase in revenue from its telecom business in the current fiscal, a top company official said.

PowerGrid, which entered the telecom business a few years back, has a telecom network of about 21,000 km optic fibre cable providing connectivity to all the metros, major cities and towns, besides presence in some remotest areas.

"We are expecting a 30-40 per cent increase in revenues from our telecom business," PowerGrid Director (Personnel) V M Kaul told reporters here today.

Last year, the company had netted Rs 187 crore from the telecom business out of the total revenue of Rs 8,388 crore.

"At present, the telecom business contributes nearly 2-3 per cent of our total business. But we are looking at a significant growth in revenue from this business in future," he said.

The corporation which has over one lakh towers has so far leased 800 towers and has floated tenders for another 30,000, another official said.

Power Grid has entered into infrastructure-sharing agreements with a telecom infrastructure service providers for using power line towers to mount telecom antennas in Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh.

According to the company, the telecom backbone network is ready for 16 wave-length (scalable to 32 wave-length) of 10 G/2.5 dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) and synchronous transport module (STM) 16 system.