The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) is planning to lease out unused part of bus rapid transit system (BRTS) optic fibre cable (OFC) network for a period of 10 years. As per the terms, the private player will have marketing rights for the optical fibre network and can use it on its own or sub-let it further to private entities. Further, depending on the performance of the lessee, it may extend it for 10 more years. To this end, the civic body has already initiated the process for inviting bids and expects to complete the selection and finalise a lessee shortly.
The development comes in the backdrop of failure of BRTS to provide effective public transport services. To this end, the AMC aims to maximise its revenue by renting out its infrastructure.
The Ahmedabad Janmarg Limited (AJL), the special purpose vehicle of the AMC that manages the BRTS has decided to rent out its OFC network to private telecom providers. In addition, the Smart City Ahmedabad Development Limited (SCADL), another special purpose vehicle of the AMC and the state government, had laid an OFC network connecting BRTS stations, AMTS depots and zonal offices to AJL’s main data centre at the Usmanpura AMC zonal office and its disaster recovery (DR) site at the AMC headquarters in Danapith.
The approximate length of this network is 170 kilometres. The civic body intends to monetise this dedicated optic fibre cable network to generate extra revenue. Currently, AMC is using part of the fibre for its own services.
