Nagpur, Oct 17: State-run Power Grid Corporation of India will soon enter the telecom service provider segment and is only waiting to implement the 20,000 km telecom-network, providing an affordable highway for telecommunication, company officials said.

The company has already diversified into telecom segment as a carrier while utilising spare telecommunication capacity of its unified load dispatch centre (ULDC) schemes, leveraging its countrywide transmission infrastructure, its chairman-cum-managing director R P Singh said here today.

“Once we stabilise in the business of carrier, we will venture into basic telephony,” Singh said at a press conference.

The company is in the process of implementing telecom network of about 20,000 km, which will provide a robust highway of telecommunication at affordable cost with ultra modern and eco-friendly implementation techniques, he said.

Singh said agreements have been signed with leading telecom players like MTNL, BSNL and Reliance for using Power Grid’s telecom network.

Most part of the telecom network, connecting major cities like Delhi, Chandigargh, Jammu, Jaipur, Lucknow, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Pune, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Chennai, besides the capitals in northeastern region was operational, he said.

On the PSU’s financial performance, he said it had achieved a turnover of Rs 3,554 crore with a net profit of Rs 1,009 crore during first quarter of 2005-06, thereby registering a growth rate of 26 per cent in turnover and 28 per cent in net profit compared to previous year.

The company’s gross asset base had gone up to Rs 24,888 crore in 2005-06, he added.

Source- http://www.zeenews.com