Polycab, a leading cables and wires manufacturer, has secured two deals worth  Rs 5,649.36 Crore from State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to deploy an aggregator or middle-mile network for BharatNet. 

Scope of Work 
The Scope of Work for the Project encompasses the Creation and Upgrade to the Operation and maintenance of the aggregator network under Bharatnet Phase 3 on the Design, Build, Operate, and Maintain (DBOM) Model.  

Package 4 & 7
Polycab has been awarded the deal for Package 4&& among the different packages in Bharatnet Phase 3. Among the locations covered under BharatNet Phase 3 are: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Karnataka, Uttarakhand, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu & Kashmir, North East Region – I and North East Region – II, Package 4 aims to cover areas falling in Karnataka, Puducherry and Goa while Package 7 covers Bihar. 

Cost Breakdown 
The two filings made by the company in different instances mention the project cost as ET writes: 

• Package 4: Rs 4,099 crore
• Package 7: Rs 1549,66,31,902.36

This brings the Cumulative Cost of the Projects secured by Polycab to Rs 5,649.36 Crore 

Terms of the deal 
The contracts entrust Polycab with  10 years of maintenance once the construction is complete after 3 years. Maintenance cost ranges from 5.5% per annum of the capex for the first five years progressing to 6.5% per annum of the capex in the last 5 years. 

Also Read: RVNL Emerges as Lowest Bidder for BSNL's Rs 5,000 Crore BharatNet Project, 3rd Phase

Project Bidders 
The major bidders included Telecommunications Consultant of India Limited (TCIL), ITI Limited, HFCL, STL, Polycab, and Pratap Technocrats aiming to assist BSNL in phase 3 of the BharatNet project. Among these few companies like Polycab, STL, and HFCL presented solo bids while G R Infraprojects, Vindhya Telelinks, Pace Digitek Infra Private Limited, RVNL, and Megha Engineering took the route of consortium. 

BharatNet
BharatNet, one of the world’s largest rural telecom initiatives, is being implemented by the Government of India to provide universal broadband access across 2.5 lakh (250,000) Gram Panchayats. The project aims to empower telecom operators to deliver essential services such as e-health, e-education, and e-governance, bringing digital connectivity to rural and remote areas.