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IRCON to increase focus on telecom

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: IRCON, the public sector undertaking under the Ministry of

Railways whose main focus is construction of railway infrastucture, will

increasingly focus on providing telecom infrastructure. It has planned a Rs

100-crore fibre-optic project between Delhi and Mumbai, and once the rules of

long-distance telephorny become clearer, it will make an increased pitch into

that segment as well. According to IRCON general manager, (signals &

telecom), Rajiv Sinha, IRCON always had the technical know-how of installing

telecom infrastructure, it was only a question of `when` in making a foray into

the public domain.

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The Delhi-Mumbai fibre-optic project is IRCON's first significant telecom

project. It has signed an MoU with thre Ministry of Railways to lay optical

fibre cables along the 1,500 km-long stretch. The Ministry has provided right of

way to provide for the communication requirements of the Railways, and selling

lines to telecom players. In return, IRCON will share 20 per cent of the profits

accruing from the project with the Ministry. It has already started work on the

Ahmedabad-Vadodara stretch of the Delhi-Mumbai section. The amount spent by

IRCON on this stretch will be treated as IRCON's equity in the joint venture.

IRCON is in the process of selecting a technical partner who has extensive

experience, and British Telecom is alleged to emerge as a likely partner. Others

being considered include Telstra and Tata Telecom. Enron, BSES and ICICI are

likely to be equity partners in the project where IRCON will hold 50 per cent

equity. The remaining 50 per cent equity will be distributed between two or

three joint venture partners. Over the last eight years, it has executed several

smaller communication projects for the Railways and more recently for another

public sector, GAIL. It is currently implementing the over 800 km-optical fibre

communication network between Vijaypur in Maharashtra and Dadari near Delhi for

GAIL.

This is the first telecom project undertaken for a client other than the

Railways. The Rs 10-crore project which was undertaken as a consortium by IRCON,

PCL and Tata Lucent is in the process of being handed over to GAIL. IRCON is

also in the process of implementing the communication network on the Eastern

Coast for the Railways. The 800 km stretch between Vishakapatnam and Cuttack is

part of the Railway electrification program and is pegged at Rs 16 crore. On a

smaller scale, IRCON has implemented a 90-km stretch of optical fibre around the

railway stations in Delhi. In the overseas market, it has recently bagged a $122

million contract in Malayasia to construct railway infrastructure, which will

also involve laying down a 40-km fiber-optic stretch connecting three stations.

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