Surana Telecom to start execution of Rs 70 crore BSNL order

City-based Surana Telecom Limited, which bagged orders worth Rs 116 crore from BSNL and MTNL for the supply of CDMA-based fixed wireless telephones (FWTs) in the fourth quarter of the last financial year, is likely to commence the execution of another BSNL order worth Rs 70 crore next month.

Surana Telecom managing director Narender Surana told Business Standard that the company had received the advance purchase order (APO) from BSNL for the supply of 1.08 lakh FWTs. Surana Telecom would supply 36,225 FWTs, while another group company Bhagyanagar Metals would supply 72,450 FWTs, he said.

The company is at present awaiting a technical clarification and expects to begin the supply in July, he said.

The company, originally a manufacturer of jelly filled telecommunication cables (JTC) and optic fibre cables (OFC), forayed into the FWT segment following a decline of market for the cable products in the country.

Both its arms - Surana Telecom and Bhagyanagar Metals "� turned manufacturers of wireless products and developers of components and software patches needed for indigenisation of the products.

The company bagged two orders worth Rs 116 crore from BSNL and MTNL in February 2004. It tied up with LG for the BSNL order worth Rs 90 crore for supply of 1.23 lakh FWTs. The company successfully executed the order recently, Surana said.

Surana Telecom supplied 41,000 FWTs and Bhagyanagar Metals executed the order for 82,000 FWTs. On the Rs 26-crore MTNL order, Surana said that the group had joined hands with Huawei Technologies of China.

The order for the supply of 40,000 FWTs, to commence shortly, would be executed by Surana Telecom in the next two months, he said.

Speaking of the group's new ventures, he said that the group's tie-up with Huawei Technologies would enable the company to foray into the manufacture of third generation soft switches.

BSNL and MTNL are likely to invite tenders for orders worth Rs 200 crore for the supply of switches during this month itself, he said. At present, a technical evaluation of a 5,000-line switching facility supplied by the group was being carried out in New Delhi, he said, adding that the performance report was expected soon.

On the demand scenario of FWTs in the country, Surana said the current requirement of the public sector telecom bodies at around four lakh pieces was expected to shoot up by 350 per cent to touch 18 lakh pieces during the next fiscal.

He attributed the growing preference for FWTs to easy and quick installation, mobility and security features. They also bring down the costs considerably for service providers, he said.

To a query on the cable business, Surana said that the group was at present executing a BSNL order worth Rs 50 crore of JTC. Bhagyanagar Metals and Surana Telecom were supplying 3.7 lakh and 3.5 lakh conductor kilometres (CKM) of cable respectively, he added.

During the last financial year, Surana Telecom also had optic fibre and optic fibre cable sales of Rs 2 crore. The company is to announce financial results for 2003-04 by the month-end.

The turnover projections for Surana Telecom and Bhagyanagar Metals were put at Rs 120 crore and Rs 125 crore respectively.

On the first quarter performance in the current financial year, Surana said that the turnover was expected to be Rs 35 crore for Bhagyanagar Metals and Rs 20 crore for Surana Telecom.