Blunder by ITI, Blunder by BSNL

On behalf of USOF (DoT), BSNL Corporate Office had invited a tender on February 15, 2024 for BharatNet Phase-III project for a total of 16 packages. In the case of package No. 13 (J&K and Ladakh) BSNL had assessed (re-estimated) its cost to Rs 1,488.52 Cr.

In the package-13, ITI Ltd had quoted Rs 1,496.19 Cr towards Capex (after correction of levying of double GST) in the XL sheet that it had submitted as part of the bid. But by mistake, in the pdf file, it submitted a wrong file which was of package-11 (however, it was a different version from actual submission by ITI for package-11). BSNL rejected its bid on this technical ground, citing that the pdf file uploaded by ITI for package-13 did not match with the XL-file. But, nevertheless, the price discovery was