HC extends stay on awarding Rs 20,000 crore contract by BSNL

New Delhi, Jan 22 (UNI) Acting on the petition of Motorola, the Delhi High Court today again extended the stay on award of the contract of the Rs 20,000 crore GSM expansion project by the government-owned BSNL to Ericsson and Nokia till February 1.

Justice Swatanter Kumar adjourned the matter after extending the stay on the award of the contract by the government-owned company.

In a petition Motorola, which had tied up with Chinese company ZTE, alleged that the BSNL had deliberately omitted the company from the financial bid on October 7, 2006 fearing alleged security threat from China after accepting its tender terms.

In the financial bids, Swedish telecom major Ericsson has emerged as the lowest bidder followed by Finnish telecom giant Nokia for the 45.5 million line tender, based on third generation (3G) GSM telephony technology.

The petitioner has not been formally informed about the rejection from the participation and Ericsson, Nokia and Siemens had been invited to participate in the financial bid opening scheduled for October 9, 2006 said the petition filed by Counsel Ciccu Mukhopadhaya for Motorola.

If the BSNL's decision remained the same after due evaluation, Ericsson would bag the contract for supplying 60 per cent of the equipment, while Nokia would get the remaining 40 per cent at the price quoted by the former company.

UNI