BENGALURU: Beginning April 1, a new set of telecom operators, internet service providers and multi-system operators will take over the optical fibre cable contract of the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation. This scheme to lease out its excess cables available across its network will incorporate phase-I, phase-1 extensions and Reach-5 of phase-II.
Chief Public Relations Officer, BMRCL, BL Yashwanth Chavan told TNIE, “The current five-year contract expires on March 31. There were seven contractors who availed our cables to provide connectivity to their customers using the Metro network. BMRCL earned an annual non fare box revenue of Rs 4.5 crore from them.”
The telecom firms who have been awarded the new contract are Hathway Digital Ltd, Sify Technologies, Shyam Spectra, Hathway Cable and Datacom Ltd. “Sify has quoted the highest bid of of Rs 5,040 per pair km per month and so the rest will also pay the same amount. BMRCL looks at an enhanced revenue of Rs 5 crore from them,” Chavan said.
The new contract will cover the RV Road to Bommasandra line, the 42.3 km phase-I and all the extensions launched after that.
The cost of using a cable tray for dropping at the required station by the operator works out to Rs 1,700 per station per month. The fibre maintenance charges come to Rs 700 per pair km per month.
Along with leasing out the space inside its Metro stations for commercial establishments or parking contractors to boost its non-fare revenue, the leasing of cables is expected to fetch it a decent income.
A total of approximately 400km fibre cable laid across the BMRCL network of phase 1 & phase 2 has been leased out.