Sam Pitroda, advisor to the prime minister on information, infrastructure and innovation, and the Department of Telecom (DoT) are reportedly in a tussle over the execution of the Rs 120 million optical fibre cable (OFC) project that entails providing broadband connectivity to 250,000 panchayats across the country in two years. Pitroda had approached the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) for the formation of a special purpose vehicle involving BSNL, RailTel, PowerGrid, C-DoT, National Informatics Centre (NIC) and Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) as co-stakeholders. However, DoT has disagreed with the proposal, instead it wants BSNL to deliver the project. DoT’s rationale is that BSNL owns 625,000 route km of OFC of the total 11 route km of OFC laid across the country, which is well beyond the present OFC resources of both PowerGrid (20K route km) and RailTel (52K route km). DoT has also pointed out that since USOF will be the funding agency for the project, its own rules govern the bidding route for selection of “an agency”? or “a group of key stakeholders”? for execution. Accordingly, if the project is awarded directly to a group of key stakeholders without going through the tendering process, it would need relaxation of USOF Rule No 526.
In light of this, DoT prefers that the SPV is formed only to oversee the initial planning, implementation and co-ordination, more like a steering committee, which is later dissolved on the completion of the project. According to DoT, BSNL ought to be the company to deliver the broadband push in the country.
