BENGALURU: Allegations of irregularities and potential favoritism have surfaced in the tender process for the Karnataka State Wide Area Network (KSWAN) upgrade, with industry stakeholders accusing the Centre for e-Governance (CeG) of tailoring specifications to favour a single Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM).
The controversy centres on tender reference CEG/2025-26/IND0043 and its subsequent re-issue. Critics claim that process has been manipulated to create a de facto single-vendor scenario, raising concerns over transparency. The KSWAN initiative, aimed at providing secure and reliable network connectivity across government offices in Karnataka, had begun preparatory work in 2022.
Initially, the CeG had drafted a Request for Proposal (RFP) to support a multi-OEM architecture and conventional routing-based design, in line with standard industry practices.
The tender was floated on July 11, 2025, and attracted bids from RailTel, Orange, and TCIL, with Cisco and Juniper as participating OEMs. The stakeholders say that despite receiving three bids, authorities opened only the pre-qualification documents and cancelled the tender, citing ‘improper’ submissions.
CeG then formed a technical committee, claiming the earlier specifications were ‘outdated.’ Industry sources allege that only Cisco was consulted during the revision process, resulting in updated requirements that aligned closely with Cisco’s proprietary architecture. The re-tender was issued on December 8, 2025.
At the pre-bid meeting held on December 15, 2025, Juniper and other interested parties argued that the revised specifications were proprietary and anti-competitive. They demanded neutralization of clauses to ensure a level playing field.
The matter was escalated to senior officials, including the CEO of CeG, Secretary, Chief Secretary, and the Chief Minister’s office.
A corrigendum was released on January 6, 2026, introducing only superficial modifications, while the core requirements allegedly favoring Cisco remained unchanged, claimed the stakeholders. Cisco now has emerged as the sole qualified OEM. There are allegations that Cisco declined to issue Manufacturer Authorisation Forms (MAF) or provide necessary support to other potential system integrators, effectively blocking their participation in the bidding process.
The secretary, governance, Pankaj Kumar Pandey, however, said there was no abrupt cancellation of tender.
“KSWAN 3.0 tender was issued in July 2025 and there were three bidders. But all the bids were rejected by the scrutiny committee,” said Pandey. Pandey said that since the original RFP was prepared in 2022, the same had to be updated keeping in mind the ongoing requirements of the Government of Karnataka and requests from various departments to accommodate more number of government offices and hence the capacity was revised.
Pandey said while revising the RFP, there was no consultation with any of the OEMs and the revised RFP did not favour any particular OEM. He added that any OEM not providing support to system integrators is not under the purview of CeG and has to be dealt by concerned System Integrators with the OEMs. He said the tender exercise is being done with due diligence and to ensure maximum benefit to government offices in Karnataka. Despite repeated attempts TNIE could not elicit any response from Cisco officials on the issue.
Meanwhile, former Supreme Court judge and Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, said, “It is an arbitrary decision to help a particular party. It is a fit case to be taken to the court of law.’’