The Hindu Business Line : BSNL asks TCIL to speed up Net project

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has asked the Telecommunication Consultants of India Ltd (TCIL) to expedite the completion of Phase Two of the National Internet Backbone project, which has already been delayed by over a year.

The Rs 120-crore project, backed by IBM and Tata Consultancy Service, was scheduled to be completed by May 2005, but has not yet taken off.

At a review meeting held in January, BSNL officials admitted that that delay in the Internet backbone project was hampering the plans of the state-owned company. "The project was already very badly delayed and TCIL is required to accord top priority to ensure that the project is commissioned at the earliest. This phase comprises many sub-projects, targets are to be given for each of these sub-projects to enable BSNL to plan its service offerings," BSNL said at the meeting.

TCIL, along with IBM and TCS, had bagged the tender for setting up part three of the project's second phase.

While IBM and TCS have maintained that there has been no delay from their side in delivering the equipment, highly placed officials in TCIL said the delay in implementing the project was due to lack of a physical place to install the hardware required to kick-start the project. "We are waiting for BSNL to allot us the building where the hardware could be installed. There are also some procedural delays, which will be sorted out by the companies. We are pushing to commission the data centres by March 2006 and trial service by June 2006," said a senior TCIL official.

As per the agreement between the companies, BSNL can levy a penalty on TCIL for a delay of more than 20 weeks. As a precedent, BSNL had imposed a penalty on Chinese manufacturer Huawei for delaying supply of equipment for BSNL's wireless project. However, in TCIL's case, BSNL has not yet initiated any punitive measures despite a delay of more than 25 weeks.

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BSNL asks TCIL to speed up Net project