(a) whether the Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) which was formed to share Indian Telecom expertise in India and abroad has started taking up road construction projects;
(b) if so, the reasons therefor; and
(c) the profit earned/likely to be earned by the TCIL by undertaking road construction projects?
THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (DR. SHAKEEL AHMAD)
(a) Yes, Sir. TCIL has started taking road construction projects.
(b) TCIL have been initially engaged in external plant network constructions required for fixed line telecom network which includes civil works. With change in technology, there has been substantial reduction of external plant networks world over including in our own country. In order to utilize its expertise and increase the productivity of civil engineers, as well improve turnover the road construction sector which is presently a booming sector and similar other works have been taken up. TCIL has been pre-qualified for road construction tenders in the State of MP for Bina-Guna-Sironj Project on the basis of its experience in Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe. Company also started undertaking other Civil and Architecture Consultancy Projects particularly for construction of cyber park which ultimately shall result in award of networking projects to TCIL. TCIL`s quality work at most competitive market price has given edge over other purely Civil Engineering Construction Co
mpanies.
(c) For road construction and civil and architecture consultancy projects, profits earned during 2004-05 amounted to Rs. 3.64 crores and profits anticipated in 2005-06 is Rs. 3.34 crore.