Procurement quota: 2 tenders on the anvil for ITIL's participation, says BSNL chief

State-owned ITI Ltd will have an opportunity to participate in two large tenders of telecom PSU Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) by March-end, as part of procurement quota approved by the Cabinet recently, a top BSNL official said.

The Union Cabinet earlier this month had approved the continuation of quota for state-owned ITI Ltd in procurement made by three telecom firms -- BSNL, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL), a move aimed at strengthening ITI's order book and improving its financial health.

"There are two immediate tenders on the anvil, apart from many others that are continuing. One of them is a contract for supply of GPON (Gigabit-capable Passive Optical Networks) equipment under the second phase of Bharat Net project," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.

The contract, valued at roughly Rs 400 crore, will offer ITI Ltd the opportunity to qualify for a 20 per cent share, Shrivastava said.

Another contract, multi-service access node (MSAN), will emerge as early as next month.

"This is a tender where we procure hardware equipment for storage, so that work we are going to give to ITI. The tender for this is likely to be out in December," he said, adding that the contract in its entirety will be valued at Rs 300 crore, of which ITI can qualify for 20 per cent.

The two projects are in addition to those that are already on, and where ITI is participating, he added.

The recent Cabinet nod on continuation of procurement quota policy for ITI Ltd entails reserving 30 per cent of the procurement orders placed by BSNL, MTNL and BBNL for the products manufactured by the state-owned telecom equipment maker.

The procurement quota also includes 20 per cent of the orders for the turnkey projects (such as GSM network roll-out, Wi-Fi of BSNL and MTNL and BharatNet project network roll-out of BBNL).

Besides bolstering ITI Ltd's order book, the continuation of the policy is also expected to trigger new job opportunities in the company, particularly in new telecom technologies. To enable ITI to survive in the competitive environment of telecom manufacturing, BSNL and MTNL have been extending reservation quota to ITI Ltd.

The validity of reservation benefit extended to ITI had expired on May 31, 2018, prompting a fresh approval by the government recently.