BharatNet

BBNL has awarded contracts to supply GPON to ITI (L1) with 40 per cent quantity and the balance 60 per cent has been distributed amongst the other three bidders – L&T, Tejas and Presto. The supply is likely to commence from last week of September 2016. In the meantime, for the same project and product two more tenders have been invited by BSNL (42,500) and RailTel (7,500). In these tenders, only the same bidders will participate. Now, the price has already been discovered in BBNL’s tender, and any major difference in the price discovery (higher or lower) in BSNL & RailTel tenders would lead to vigilance complaints. Also, in such scenario, the chances of cartelization are very high.