ITI Ltd.’s shares jumped 9% to an intraday high of Rs 291 on the BSE today on the company’s announcement that it had been selected as the L1 bidder for the Rs 3,022 crore Middle Mile Network BharatNet project.
In the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, West Bengal, and Himachal Pradesh, the business has been the lowest bidder for the project.
“ITI Limited, the country’s first PSU post-independence and a premier telecom manufacturing company with its consortium partner has emerged as L1 in BharatNet Phase-3 Project in the states of Himachal Pradesh for Package No. 8, and in West Bengal, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands for Package No. 9 with total order value of Rs. 3,022 Crores,” said the company in a filing to the exchanges.
According to the filing, the consortium led by ITI Limited has been successful in these two packages out of the 16 packages that span the entire country and for which a tender has been issued thus far.
To design, supply, build, install, upgrade, operate, and maintain the 16 Packages/Circles of the BharatNet Middle Mile Network, BSNL had issued tenders.
The BharatNet project, which is supported by the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), intends to close the “digital divide” by providing all Indian Gramme Panchayats (GPs) and villages with high-speed broadband connectivity with a bandwidth of 100Mbps, guaranteeing fair access to online services for everyone, particularly those living in rural areas.
“We are delighted to have emerged as L1 for the prestigious BharatNet phase-3 project in the states of Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, Sikkim, and Andaman & Nicobar Islands. BharatNet is a nation building project and it gives me immense satisfaction to be part of the execution of this gigantic project,” said Rajesh Rai, Chairman and Managing Director of ITI while commenting on the development.
ITI Limited has extensive expertise carrying out OFN projects for BharatNet throughout India, and it has completed projects of around Rs. 5,400 Crores in the states of Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
ITI’s stock has up 5.66% over the past year, but it has already dropped 6.45% this year.
