New Delhi: The Department of Telecom (DoT) has proposed not to monetise the rural broadband network infrastructure created under the BharatNet project and replace it with alternative assets to achieve the target set under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP). planning. Sources also told PTI that the BSNL tower monetization bid launch would be targeted within FY 22-23.
According to sources, earlier attempts to monetize assets under BharatNet had not received satisfactory response from private players. “The response to the bid under PPP (public-private partnership) mode was not satisfactory,” said the source.
The Department of Telecom under the Ministry of Communications has so far not raised any funds through asset monetization against a target of Rs 20,180 crore in the current financial year. An e-mail sent to DoT seeking comment remained unanswered.
According to the NMP document, 5,25,706 km of optical fiber has been laid under the BharatNet project, which aims to connect all villages in the country with a high-speed broadband network.
Sources said the indicative monetization value for BharatNet fiber assets is considered based on the capex approach. Earlier the scope of the project was limited to 2.5 lakh panchayats, which has now been extended to the village level.
The NMP has estimated Rs 20,180 crore in the first phase of the proposed telecom asset monetization in FY23, which includes Rs 15,780 crore from BharatNet Fiber and Rs 4,400 crore from mobile tower sales.
As per the document, BSNL’s 13,567 mobile tower assets and MTNL’s 1,350 towers are valued at Rs 8,800 crore. Both the public sector units together have 69,047 mobile towers.
The government has monetised assets worth Rs 33,422 crore under the National Monetization Pipeline (NMP) so far in 2022-23, with the Ministry of Coal leading the list by raising Rs 17,000 crore, and the Ministry of Ports and Shipping surpassing its overall financial target. has done
In 2021-22, the government crossed the target of Rs 88,000 crore for the first year of the program by completing transactions worth Rs 1 lakh crore.
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman reviewed the progress of NMP implementation in a meeting with NITI Aayog CEO Parameswaran Iyer on 14 November.
In August 2021, Sitharaman announced Rs 6 lakh crore-NMP over four years to unlock value in infrastructure assets across sectors. NITI Aayog prepared the report on NMP in consultation with infrastructure line ministries.