According to industry sources, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed not to monetise the rural broadband network infrastructure created under the BharatNet project and instead plans to replace it with alternative assets to achieve the target set under the National Monetisation Pipeline (NMP).
The earlier attempts to monetise assets under BharatNet had not received a satisfactory response from private players. As per sources, the response to the bid under the public-private partnership (PPP) mode was not satisfactory.
DoT has so far not raised any funds through asset monetisation against the target of Rs 201.8 billion in the financial year 2022-2023. The indicative monetisation value for BharatNet fibre assets is considered based on a capex approach.
Meanwhile, as per sources, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) tower monetisation bid launch will be targeted within the financial year 2022-2023.
