TCIL maintains Rs 9000-crore order book, expects 10% growth

State-run Telecom Consultants of India Limited (TCIL), the telecom and IT consulting and engineering company, is expecting at least 10% revenue growth on the back of a strong order book of Rs 9,000 crore.

“We are expecting to grow nearly 10% this year. Our order book is of Rs 9,000 crore including Rs 4,000 crore worth of projects in FY 2019-20. In addition, some big initiatives are also in the offing,” TCIL chairman Rajiv Gupta told ETTelecom.

The state-owned firm posted Rs 1,612 crore revenues in 2018-19 and is expected to report 2019-20 fiscal results by the mid of this year.

Gupta, however, added that some of the mega projects were stalled in the due course otherwise the public-sector company would have easily achieved a higher growth of at least 30%.

TCIL that had bagged Centre’s BharatNet initiatives worth Rs 1490 crore in two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have been put on hold due to multiple reasons including local issues.

BharatNet is Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious pan-India program to provide fibre-based broadband connectivity to more than 6 lakh villages through 2.5 lakh gram panchayats or village blocks.

Last year, Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest decision-making body of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had approved a piggyback transaction, and TCIL is likely to come up with an Initial Public Offering (IPO) later this year.

However, the government plans to sell up to 15% stake to mop up nearly Rs 900 crore, and in addition, TCIL wanted to issue fresh shares to the tune of 10%, enabling the Delhi-based firm to fetch close to Rs 600 crore.

The public-sector firm, however, plans to use IPO proceeds to fund working capital, and that would also facilitate the company to add new projects to its pool.

India’s engineering major is also supplying, deploying and commissioning a mega VSAT (very small aperture terminal) initiative in the Ku frequency band providing satellite-based bandwidth in several states including Northeast, Jammu & Kashmir, and Himachal Pradesh.

Of the total 4,800 VSAT terminals, TCIL has installed more than 1,000 terminals and has already established gateways at Ahmedabad and Ranchi.

The public-sector company is into a transformational phase to become a total solution provider across the Information Communication Technology (ICT), engineering, and civil domains and has recently bagged a Delhi Transport Corporation project to deploy CCTV cameras, panic buttons and Global Positioning System (GPS) in 5,500 buses.

―Sortiwa