HFCL wins Rs 3,329 crore order from BSNL to build network for army

HFCL has won a Rs 3,329 crore order from BSNL to build and maintain telecommunication network of the Indian army under Network for Spectrum project.
HFCL MD Mahendra NahataHFCL, which is one of the leading telecom network makers in India, will complete the project within 18 months.

HFCL Managing Director Mahendra Nahata said: “Besides augmenting revenue growth, this project shall add to the company’s profitability and cash flows. The O&M component, at the same time, shall contribute to the profitability of the company over a long term.”

HFCL said this is the largest ever purchase order from BSNL for the turnkey development, operations and maintenance of communication network for Indian Army.

HFCL said the project has an additional 10-year operations and maintenance component of Rs 862 crore, which takes the total value of contract to Rs 3,329 crore.

The turnkey project, funded by Department of Telecom (DoT), covers design, development, deployment and maintenance of Converged Nationwide IP/MPLS Backbone with 219 X Access Networks and Integrated IMS based Communication Solutions under Network for Spectrum (NFS) Programme of the Government of India.

This next generation network would connect various locations of Indian Army while also integrating all existing and legacy networks to offer seamless and secure transmission of voice, data, video and multi-media.

HFCL in January said it will invest Rs 35 crore on expanding optical fibre manufacturing facility to 10.5 million route fibre kilometre by June this year.

The company has existing production capacity of 8 million fkm approximately and working with utilisation capacity of 96 percent. HFCL is already working on adding 7 million fkm which the board has now enhanced by another 3.5 million fkm. The company will have total production capacity of 18.5 fkm by June 2019.

HFCL reported revenue of Rs 1,343 crore (Rs 1,088 crore) and net profit of Rs 117 crore (Rs 47 crore) for the April-June quarter.