The Hindu Business Line : PowerGrid in talks with ICICI Bank for telecom service

POWER Grid Corporation of India Ltd (PGCIL) has begun negotiations with ICICI Bank for providing telecommunications facilities for its banking operations.

Speaking to reporters here on Wednesday, Mr R.P. Singh, PGCIL's Chairman and Managing Director, said that a deal was expected to be concluded shortly for providing telecom facilities to ICICI bank. He said, "We are prepared to offer similar facilities to more banks."

He said PGCIL had already concluded agreements with some of the telecom service providers (TSPs) for providing backbone facilities for both their data and voice carriage.

He said that among the companies with whom PGCIL had already concluded agreements included the public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices Ltd.

Most of these TSPs had sought carrier facilities for their networks in the North-East and in Jammu and Kashmir where PGCIL had a network. PGCIL currently had a network equivalent of 20,000 circuit kilometres linking up to 60 cities in the country.

The backbone lease contracts were expected to generate at least Rs 100 crore of revenues per annum, he said. This year, however, PGCIL is expected to earn only Rs 50 crore. Investments in telecom, he said was estimated to break even only by 2008, since most such carrier projects had a gestation of at least 5 years.

He said that PGCIL was also working on setting up a high voltage direct current line between Talcher and Gulbarga for evacuation of power from the proposed 2000 MW pithead thermal station of the Neyveli Lignite Corporation Ltd.

This project was awaiting clearance from the Union Cabinet.

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