A reliable NT source said the management has already tabled the agenda at its board meeting and the board members, who include officials from various ministries, were positive towards issuing the LoI at the earliest to make sure the project is completed on time. [break]
"The project has already been postponed four months because of the CIAA probe; so we are trying to speed things up from our side so that the implementation could be completed on schedule," the NT source said.
CIAA had initiated its probe into the NT deal suspecting irregularities, mainly as Huawei´s performance in an earlier project involving IP-CDMA was rated unsatisfactory. Basically, CIAA suspected chances of unfair dealing between NT and Huawei.
An official at NT said other bidders for the tender could raise objections with valid reasons once the LOI is issued. “A week after the issuing of LOI, we will provide a letter of acceptance to the vendor, paving the way for the signing of the MoU,” the official said.
Huawei had made the lowest bid of Rs 5.7 billion. ZTE Corporation and Ericsson India were other companies participating in the tender.
NT´s mega project is designed to address demand till 2015. The 10 million GSM lines include 2G and 3G.
The state-owned operator has not been able to issue new SIM cards as it was unable to implement its procurement plans following the CIAA investigation and instructions from the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of parliament.
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