The state-owned telecom operator BTCL is going to save 137 crore taka from the potential and estimated price in the project taken to prepare the 5G network at the Upazila level. However, the entire project is feared to be delayed due to the appeal file against the BTCL in the Supreme Court.
According to the sources, this writ was filed by lawyer Tapan Kumar Biswas on the bench of Supreme Court Justice Enayetur Rahim at the moment when the process of giving the final report in favor of the lowest bidder started after the commercial tender of BTCL was opened on Wednesday (November 8) after the technical evaluation. The 138th writ petition submitted to the bench was filed by Salim Ashraf Chowdhury and others, a representative of an organization called Internet Consumers Association. The judge has set the date for the hearing on the matter on November 20. Earlier, this Supreme Court bench ordered the suspension of the petition filed against Asaduzzaman Chowdhury and the managing director of BTCL and the company in the high court on November 6 for 8 weeks.
As per BUET’s technical assessment and CPTU’s instructions on this, the review of tenders opened on November 8 showed that among the three companies responsive to the tender, ZTE, Huawei and Smart-Nokia submitted tenders for Tk. 415 crore, Tk. 326 crore and Tk. 579 crore respectively. Therefore, the gap between the lowest bidder and the second placed Huawei is Tk. 90 crore.
In other words, Huawei’s proposed price, considered eligible for receiving the work order, is Tk. 137 crore or 30 percent less than the approved cost of the project (Tk. 463 crore). On the other hand, the type of equipment that Huawei will provide (400G) is also the most advanced technology that was recognized by ITU only in 2001.
But even then, the question has been raised about the extent to which the writ in the court is not in the public interest or in some way Bangladesh is being delayed in the 5G journey. Stakeholders say the writ is not at all reasonable to prevent the use of the best technology on demand at the lowest cost. In order to achieve this, the conspiracy to hold back the state can take place.
Because it has been seen by reviewing the documents related to the project, according to the decision 4.4 of the meeting of the Project Evaluation Committee (PEC) held at the Planning Commission on November 20, 2020, a feasibility study was carried out by the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). This Feasibility Study Report costing Tk. 28.75 lakh by the government was submitted in the month of April 2021. Based on this, the project “Optical Fiber Transmission Network Development of BTCL for Adaptation to 5G” was formulated in light of the survey prepared by DPP BUET.
Later, the plan was sent to Dr. Md. Rafiqul Matin, the then Managing Director of BTCL as the head of the organization. After the signature of, the then Secretary of Post and Telecommunication Department, Md. Khalilur Rahman, with the approval of Post and Telecommunication Minister Mustafa Jabbar it was sent to the Commission. On the recommendation of the Planning Commission, the DPP was presented at the ECNEC meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on February 22 last year. The project was approved in the meeting. In that meeting, the Minister of Telecommunication, through the implementation of the project, said that Bangladesh will rise to the highway of infrastructural development to meet the challenges of the fourth industrial revolution. In view of the approval of the Department of Posts and Telecommunications for the purpose of inviting tenders for the package described, the Technical Specification Formulation Committee was formed on April 13.
Since the tender was for transmission equipment, a committee was constituted consisting of BTCL officials with long experience in transmission matters and a representative from the Department of Posts and Telecommunications was included in the committee. The committee consisting of the experienced officers collected various field level information for about 5 (five) months and held a meeting with potential bidders and various stakeholders who have worked in the transmission sector in the presence of BTCL senior officials on June 2 last year and their opinions, they prepared the technical specifications of the tender in the light of feasibility study and DPP in consultation.
This technical directive was approved on September 8, 2022 by Dr. Md. Rafiqul Mateen, the then managing director of BTCL as the head of the organization. Official cost estimate was approved on September 13 in the light of technical difficulties. After the approval of the HOPE i.e. Managing Director, BTCL, the order made by the Tender Planning Committee, an international tender was called on September 14 under the title “Supply, Installation, Testing and Commissioning of ASON Based DWDM Transmission System on Turn-Key Basis” against the purchase of this package. The tender used CPTU’s standard format (PG-5A) and was invited through One Stage Two Envelope method. The tender notice was published in Daily Ittefaq and The Daily Observer on September 15. Besides, the notification was also published on the website of BTCL and the website of CPTU. A pre-tender meeting was then held on September 28 under the chairmanship of BTCL DMD (Planning and Development) Sanjeev Kumar Ghatak.
At the meeting, Nokia, ZTE, Fiber@Home, Other potential vendors including Tejas and Zineo were present. None of them raised any objection to the specification. Also, in the meeting of BoD, BTCL held under the chairmanship of the then Telecom Secretary Khalilur Rahman with Bidders and Stakeholders on October 30 last year; no vendor raised any objection regarding the diversion. The international tender was opened on December 20 through the 3 (three) member tender opening committee formed under the rule (7) of PPR-2008. As the tender procedure is a one-stage two-envelope procedure, the tender opening committee opens only technical proposals. It appears that ZTE, Huawei and Smart-Nokia have submitted bids.