HCL Infosystems, the domestic business subsidiary of the $5-billion IT group controlled by billionaire Shiv Nadar, has emerged as the lowest
bidder for providing computer hardware and software solutions to Bharat Sanchar Nigam’s western operations, the company’s third such win this year.
HCL emerged as L1, or the lowest bidder at Rs 890 crore, ahead of rivals TCS and Mahindra Satyam, for managing BSNL’s phone lines in the western region.
“Financial bid submitted by HCL will be evaluated and the entire process could take another month after negotiations,” said a person familiar with the transaction. He requested anonymity because he is not authorised to comment about this project. BSNL opened the bids submitted by HCL, Spanco (partnered with Mahindra Satyam) and TCS on Monday. However, a single company cannot execute the IT contract in more than two zones according to BSNL’s contract terms and this could emerge as a potential bottleneck for HCL.
“HCL will have a choice to decide which two zones it wishes to implement the operations support systems (OSS) and business support system (BSS) and the third zone in which it has emerged the lowest bidder will be awarded to the second lowest bidder,” a person familiar with BSNL’s tender norms told ET on conditions of anonymity.
Earlier, HCL won BSNL’s IT outsourcing contracts worth almost Rs 1,800 crore for southern and eastern zones
| NIFTY 
