NEW DELHI: A unit of America's Carnegie Mellon University has pulled out of a
venture to build a high-speed data network in India due to project delays, a
Federal minister said on Friday. The unit, IUNet, in collaboration with Indian
state-owned telecoms giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), was to build the
high bandwidth "Sankhya Vahini" (Digital Carrier) network, initially
linking 15 cities at a cost of Rs 10 billion.
"Yesterday, they (IUNet) informed the Prime Minister and the Department
of Telecommunications that they have withdrawn from the venture," Pramod
Mahajan, minister for Information Technology and Communications, told a news
conference. But Mahajan said the withdrawal would not halt the project and BSNL
will implement it on its own or with another partner. "Our commitment to
provide bandwidth stands," Mahajan said.
The minister admitted that the project, which received government approval in
January 2000, had been delayed by the decision to turn the virtually nationwide
provider of fixed-line phone service into a company. That was done in October
2000. IUNet was expected to hold 49 per cent and BSNL and other Indian
technology institutions the other 51 per cent of the venture, which was to
provide 2.5 to 40 gigabit per second connectivity across the country.