Tendering process for GSM lines transparent : BSNL

State-owned BSNL asserted that its tendering process for adding 45.5 million GSM lines was absolutely transparent and said the evaluation process for the financial bids would be completed in the next one month.

"The process of evaluation and finalisation will be completed in a month and we expect the first line to be operational by March 2007," BSNL CMD A K Sinha said.

Asked about the reasons for disqualifying US major Motorola and Chinese company ZTE, Sinha said it was purely on technical ground but declined to elaborate saying the matter was subjudice.

"We shall reply to the Delhi High Court's notice within the time stipulated and we shall give all the details in that," he said.

In the financial bids, which were opened on Monday, Swedish telecom major Ericsson had emerged the lowest bidder followed by Nokia to supply equipment estimated at a cost of over Rs 20,000 crore to BSNL for its mega expansion of mobile services project.

If selected after the due process of evaluation, Ericsson would be awarded 60 per cent of the contract while Nokia the remaining 40 per cent for 45.5 million lines expansion.

Sinha said BSNL has long term relations with all the vendors be it Motorola, ZTE or any other and ruled out any possibility of having any bias against or for any body.

One of the reasons for disqualifying Motorola and ZTE was that these vendors did not have experience of deploying a big network of 20 million lines.