Editorial – May 2024

The BharatNet project is floundering miserably with 65 per cent GPs (Gram Panchayat connectivity) reporting a down and out status. The vendors who were responsible for this abysmal performance instead of being hauled up for their contractual failures are sought to be rewarded through manipulated tenders and single vendor scenarios. BharatNet is funded by USOF, executed by BSNL. Marked as a super priority project, by Prime Minister Modi way back in 2014, it has been in the making through various phases over the past ten years. For the latest phase, BSNL has invited a mega tender worth Rs 56,750 crore and we bring to you developments surrounding this procurement.

Not bothered by the non-working status of the present network, DoT and BSNL are proceeding apace with their plans to spend over Rs 56,750 crore for putting all the GPs in the ring network and upgrading the network to IP-MPLS. This is evident from the format of the BSNL tender, thus whether it is technical markers like router specifications or financial eligibility conditions of networth, they have been designed to promote cartelization and restrict competition.

The 2022 and the 2023 tenders of BharatNet have been remarkable for their poor performance records, outages and facilitation of bad actors through corrupt nexuses. At the centre of all this are two entities – the Pratap group and the Bondada group, their many failures and cornering of the bulk of the contracts.

These same trends are being carried into future deployments and expenditure plans for 2024 tender. Specific details, deep analyses through tables and explanatories are presented in our cover story.