BSNL issues tender for setting up towers in Naxal areas

New Delhi: State-run BSNL has floated a notice inviting tender for setting up mobile towers in four states affected by Naxal violence.

The notice calls for supply, installation, testing, operation and maintenance of 1,315 sites of 2G GSM network in Left Wing Extremist areas of Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal for five years, which is extendable by two years.

“We have floated the tender on 14 August,” said BSNL chairman and managing director RK Upadhyay.

The tender document will be available from 23 August and a pre-bid conference will take place on 2 September. The last date for players to submit sealed technical and commercial bids is 27 September.

The Cabinet in June had cleared the three-year old proposal to set up mobile towers at 2,199 locations at cost of around Rs 3,046 crore in nine states, in the wake of a Naxal attack that led to killing of 27 people, including senior Congress leaders, in Chattisgarh in May this year.

BSNL was mandated to set up the towers, the cost of which will be borne by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

The nine states where mobile towers will be set up are Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh.

The towers which have been a long-pending demand of the home ministry, will strengthen the telecom network resulting in increased penetration in LWE affected areas and other areas facing security challenges.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had asked Department of Telecommunications to get project completed by BSNL with a year and said that in the first phase towers should be installed in proximity with security force establishments.

BSNL has already installed towers at some locations.

PTI