Vihaan Network bags Rs. 1648 deal with BSNL

The homegrown telecom equipment maker Vihaan Network Limited, has bagged Rs. 1648 crore telecom infrastructure project of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing connectivity in over 4000 villages in remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

The company said that it has emerged as the lowest bidder in the tender opened for the first phase of the project by BSNL, VNL will get whole of Arunachal Pradesh which will be around 70 percent share in the first phase of the North East mobile Connectivity.

VNL Chairman Rajiv Mehrotra thanked the government for giving the company an opportunity to partner in a project of national importance and said, "We are deeply honored for becoming a partner for BSNL's project in difficult areas of North East. It is both a challenge and opportunity for the home grown company and we consider the awarding of the project is also the recognition of our work for connecting the Left Wing Extremist areas in 10 states."

Call Drops reduced 7% in 3 Months: DOT

He said, "We are committed to successfully complete the Prime Minister's dream project and wish to express our gratitude to Communications Minister Manoj Sinha and BSNL Chairman Anupam Shrivastava, for reposing faith on us."

BSNL will provide mobile coverage in 8,621 unconnected villages and coverage along National Highways in the North-East region through 6,673 towers, and this will be funded from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

Under the Phase-I of the project, which is to be executed by state-owned operator BSNL, 2817 sites are to be installed to cover 4118 remotely located villages and tough terrains in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam. Projects are to be executed solely through indigenous technology. As per the project condition, the lowest bidder, Vihaan Networks (VNL) in this case, will get to roll out around 1,893 mobile towers in Arunachal Pradesh.

VNL had also completed successfully a BSNL project last year for creating infrastructure in LWE areas after it bagged the contract as the lowest bidder in December last year for providing voice and data connectivity in the most challenging terrain.