New Delhi, Oct 2: A 3-member committee will examine a proposal by the Department of Telecom to raise budget for laying out the communications network for army by about Rs 11,000 crore, an official source has said.
DoT has proposed to increase the budget for setting up the network under the spectrum project by about Rs 11,300 crore in addition to around Rs 13,334 crore which was approved by the Cabinet in July 2012.
“Since there is a significant escalation of project cost, the Telecom Commission has asked to set-up a 3-member committee to examine reason for the increase. The decision will be taken based on the report of the panel,” a government official, who did not want to be named, told .
The network for spectrum (NFS) project is being implemented by state-run telecom firm BSNL.
The defence ministry and DoT had signed a pact in 2009-10 under which the former had agreed to vacate 25 MHz of 3G spectrum and 20 MHz in the 2G band in phases. In return, DoT had committed to set up an exclusive defence network for its communication services.
Another official source involved in the project said the specifications approved by inter-ministerial group for project was for very low specification network but defence has demanded “best-of-the-grade” product with high level of robustness and redundancy.
“Defence wants OFC laid for them should have layers of iron so that it can be protected from damage. They want highest specification of products available in a category,” the official said on the condition of anonymity.
