New Delhi: State-owned BSNL on Friday said it was
negotiating hard with telecom equipment suppliers Ericsson and
Huawei for its Rs 32,000 crore project to expand GSM network
by 93 million lines, but has kept open the option for
re-inviting bids if the talks lead nowhere.
"We are negotiating with the vendors on a fast track
(and) hope to finalise it within a week or two," BSNL CMD
Kuldeep Goyal told agency.
Asked whether the PSU was looking for retendering the 93
million GSM lines-expansion order, Goyal said: "That option we
are keeping open. If we are able to get reasonable price from
the present vendors then we may not retender."
BSNL had chosen the bids submitted by Ericsson and
Huawei, while rejecting the offers made by three other vendors
-- Nokia Siemens, ZTE and Alcatel Lucent. BSNL is yet to place
the Advanced Purchase Orders (APOs).
Nokia-Siemens had challenged the rejection by BSNL and a
final verdict on it is still pending in courts.
The PSU has also come under attack for non-transparency
with only one vendor for each region. But BSNL said it was a
competitive bidding. "Bids are supposed to be competitive.
They are global bids," Goyal said.
BSNL had floated a tender last year for procuring
equipment to expand its GSM network by 93 million lines in
four zones -- North, West, South and East.
After evaluating technical bids, Ericsson was considered
for the North and Eastern regions, while Huawei was offered
the Southern region.
BSNL places order with Huawei for expansion
State-run telecom operator BSNL
today said it has placed purchase order for mobile equipment
for 20 million GSM lines for the south zone with Chinese firm
Huawei and will not call for any fresh bids.
"We have already given an order to Huwaei for the 2G
lines in south zone. The Advanced Purchase Order is for 2G
part which is roughly 20 million. Immediate order will be
for 8 million," Kuldeep Goyal, CMD, BSNL said today.
He said the firm is also in advanced stages of
negotiations with Ericsson for the north (25 million) and east
zone(18million). The value of the order was not disclosed.
"We hope to finalise it soon," he added.
Asked if BSNL is mulling re-tendering of the 93 million
GSM lines in the wake of DoT's suggestion to do so, Goyal said
"the tender is under evaluation, so no question of retendering
at this time."
For the west zone, Huawei was the lowest bidder but BSNL
did not place the order with the Chinese firm as security
concerns were raised on placing any order with Huawei in
border areas.
On the CCEA decision to go for listing of all
porfit-making PSUs, which will include BSNL as well, he
said the timing depends on the Government.
Bureau Report