BSNL plans fresh tender for 50 Million cellular lines

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New Delhi: State-owned telecom operator BSNL is working on a new GSM tender for 40-50 million cellular lines, the company executives with direct knowledge of the developments have said, reports Economic Times. Following a string of controversies, the BSNL board had decided last week to cancel its $10 billion tender for 93-million GSM lines, the largest ever telecom equipment contract globally. This 93 million lines tender was issued in 2008, but controversies, court cases, government intervention and probe by vigilance authorities, all resulted in BSNL having to cancel the tender, which impacted its expansion plans. The BSNL board is slated to meet this week, to discuss the proposal to float a new tender, the company executives told Economic Times. Now, BSNL aims to complete the new procurement process within a 60 day period from the date of issuing the tender, and plans to do away with several controversial clauses. For instance, it is likely to do away with the standard clause in all PSU tenders, which state that the contract must be divided between the two lowest bidders - L1 and L2 - and may award the entire deal to a single firm. Additionally, it may also include a clause, where it can place additional orders of up to 100 percent of the tender size with successful bidders. According to Economic Times, a contract for 40-50 million lines will serve it for the next 24 months. On Monday, junior minister for communications and IT Gurudas Kamat told the Lok Sabha that BSNL planned to provide 20 million GSM lines in 2010-11. With BSNL looking at similar growth rates for the next few years, the provision for placing additional orders with the winner will enable the telco to address its capacity requirements for the next four years.