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The government is planning to merge Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with the loss-making state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) this month, a senior official has said. BSNL chairman and managing director PK Purwar at a recent event organised by the All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom officers Association (AIGETOA) said that the government is giving the telecom firm an opportunity for a turnaround. "The government has taken a policy decision that BBNL is going to be merged into BSNL. This means all work of BBNL at the pan-India level is going to come to BSNL," Purwar said at the All India Conference of AIGETOA on March 13. Referring to his meeting with the union telecom minister, Purwar said he had an hour-long meeting to this effect. BSNL already has a network of over 6.8 lakh kilometer of optical fibre cable (OFC) network. With the proposed merger, BSNL will get 5.67 lakh kilometer of optical fibre which has been laid across 1.85 lakh village ..
State-run Bharat Broadband Network Limited has deferred bid dates for Rs 19,041 crore BharatNet broadband tender to September 14 after potential bidders raised more than 2,000 queries on the project. An official source told PTI that the bid dates are likely to be extended further as the queries need to be vetted by the Department of Telecom as well and the entire process may take a few weeks. According to the information published on BBNL, the bid date has been deferred from August 24 to September 14 as of now. Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) has invited global bids for the development (creation, upgradation, operation and maintenance and utilisation) of BharatNet through a public-private partnership model in nine separate packages across 16 states for a concession period of 30 years. The government has earmarked Rs 19,041 crore viability gap fund for the project. Under the project, the government plans to cover an estimated 3.61 lakh villages (including gram panchayats) .