MP Arora assures to resolve issues and difficulties being faced by BSNL

Ludhiana, January 23, 2024: Addressing the Telecom Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting at the office of GM Telecom Ludhiana on Tuesday MP (Rajya Sabha) Sanjeev Arora has advised the authorities concerned to ensure holding of regular meetings of TAC so that grievances and issues related to BSNL could be taken up without any delay. The meeting among others was attended by GM Telecom, Ludhiana A.A.Tazir, DGMs, other officers of the department and TAC members.

Further, Arora said this is for the first time that he is attending the TAC meeting since he took over as MP (Rajya Sabha) in the last about one and a half year. He suggested that the meeting of TAC should be held on quarterly basis. He gave certain suggestions to the authorities for further improving services and revenue growth of the department. He said the department should try to explore private sector besides government sector for revenue growth. He said time has gone when expected revenue growth could be expected after depending upon the government sector alone. He suggested that the department should offer comparatively cheaper rates of its services compared to competitors in the private sector.

Arora assured that he would take up all the issues related to MCL, Improvement Trust, GLADA, NHAI and Punjab Government raised by GM Telecom, Ludhiana in the meeting. He and other members of TAC were apprised by GM Telecom, Ludhiana about challenges and difficulties. It was stated that BSNL has faced massive cable interruptions due to road widening and development works done in the recent past under the Smart City project.   Besides, BSNL is facing difficulties in getting permission from MCL, Improvement Trust, NHAI for laying and maintenance of local and OFC cables. 

Further, Arora said he is glad to know that 4G deployment work is on in full swing and now it’s a big challenge for BSNL to win back mobile customers. He also appreciated that BSNL is targeting a 20 per cent market share (mobile subscribers) by the end of 2024, which is only possible by expecting 4G roll out by focusing and ensuring 100 per cent network uptime. 

Speaking on the occasion, GM Telecom, Ludhiana A.A.Tazir said under the policy guidelines of GoI and endorsed by Punjab Government regarding mandatory utilisation of BSNL network. He said BSNL Ludhiana is looking forward to be associated with all the Telecom Services/EB (Enterprise Business) Projects of central government, Punjab government and PSUs etc. He said EB Team Ludhiana is rigorously approaching all the government, private entities for exploring the opportunities of Enterprise Business e.g MCL, GLADA, Verka and big corporate houses including Oswal Group, Ralson Tyres, Monte Carlo, Hero Cycle, Vardhman Group, Trident Group, MSME firms and Housing Societies such as Hampton Homes, Omaxe Residency etc. He also stated that BSNL Ludhiana should be given an opportunity to serve the dedicated bandwidth for field equipment, Data Centre and MCC under the Smart City Project of Ludhiana District. 

A presentation about various achievements of BSNL Ludhiana Telecom District for the financial year 2023-24 was also given by the concerned officials on the occasion. The data of revenue verses expenses of Ludhiana Business Area for FY 2023-24 shows that Rs.21.54 crore was spent on salaries of staff out of the total revenue of Rs.50.63 crore. Besides, Rs.6.63 crore was spent on electricity and fuel and Rs.9.92 crore on commission of franchisee.