The Directorate-General of Signals at the Army headquarters has approached the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding the delays in laying the defence optical fibre cable network.
In 2009, DoT and the Ministry of Defence had signed an agreement, as part of which the department was to build an exclusive cable network for the defence forces. In turn, the defence forces had to surrender the spectrum which lay unutilised with it. The cable network had to be rolled out within a period of six months from the time of the signing of the agreement.
Following the agreement in 2009, the defence forces have so far released 40 MHz of spectrum for the mobile operators. Despite this, the cable network has not been rolled out yet. Procedural delays and a flawed tendering process have resulted in delays in rolling out the optical fibre project worth Rs 70 billion. The tender floated for laying the cable network has been cancelled thrice.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was awarded the responsibility to set up the cable system. However, the operator has not been able to close the tender for procuring the optical cable. Initially, BSNL came out with a tender in January 2010 which was cancelled. Following this, another tender was floated in November 2012, which was also cancelled.
As many as 14 companies like L&T, Sterlite Limited and Punj Lloyd had expressed interest in this turnkey project, which involves laying 57,000 km optical cable. The network will connect 129 Army, 162 Air Force and 33 Navy installations. The government has earmarked $3 billion for the project.
